


Nine-Tailed Foxes are Dead

by RowlettLesbian



Series: Naruto the Fox [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amputee Naruto, BAMF Nara Shikamaru, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, BAMF Yamanaka Ino, Blood and Gore, Confused Nara Shikamaru, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Fuuinjutsu Master Uzumaki Naruto, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Ino-Shika-Cho Formation (Naruto), M/M, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Smart Uzumaki Naruto, Summons & Summoning Meta, Uzushiogakure | Hidden Eddy Village, ive done away with bullshit shounen power-ups in favor of storytelling, the ninja are going to punch each other or so help me, there will be no giant frogs or slugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-08-10 00:54:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 62,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16460351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RowlettLesbian/pseuds/RowlettLesbian
Summary: For Konoha, it's been one month since the preliminary Chunin exams. For Naruto, it's been six. And he wasn't in Konoha.At the end of his ordeal, Naruto walks into the Chunin Exam finals without his left arm.Shikamaru is very concerned. And, eventually, very precious to Naruto as they work together to solve the mysteries of Konoha and bring kindness to the Shinobi world, one adventure at a time.





	1. Present

**Author's Note:**

> See I have this quirk where whenever I listen to EDM I end up writing Naruto fanfiction where there's actually a good plot and a consistent theme. So obviously I try to avoid EDM.
> 
> Except I really like EDM.
> 
> So here we are.

Naruto had thought he’d felt emptiness before. Empty like lonely, empty like hungry, empty like tired of the hatred from the villagers. He’d never been empty before. Naruto had nothing left in him, now. Like he’d been scoured out with steel wool.

 

He left his apartment without so much as bothering to close the door. It wasn’t like anything was left inside to ruin, and all of his things were long gone. He had the black tank-top he was wearing, and the black shorts, and the hitai-ate he used to hold the ripped up shirt over the stump where his left arm used to be. As he walked out of his building to head towards the arena, he idly smoothed the metal with his hand. It had a chip near the upper left corner he hadn’t noticed before. It must have been from a stray kunai.

 

The sun looked to Naruto to be at about the 09:00 position, so he’d make it just in time for his match if nothing waylaid him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make it to his match or not, but he idly thought that once he wasn’t feeling so empty he’d probably regret it if he didn’t give Neji the respect of a proper fight. Neji wasn’t as bad as he’d thought, six months ago. Well, one month for the human realm.

 

The arena was unfamiliar and familiar to Naruto. The entrance was unguarded, so there was no one he could ask about directions, but he’d had enough practice tracking that it turned out he didn’t need them. He hadn’t realized his sense of smell and eye for scuff marks had gotten so refined. He walked down an arched hallway towards the sound of dozens of people shuffling and the smell of all those people, shinobi and otherwise. He brought his arm up to his face and idly tried to wipe away some blood from the cut on his forehead. Healing would be really great right about then, but the nine tail’s chakra wasn't an option.

 

Naruto noticed he seemed to be slipping further into that emptiness, where thinking or feeling anything became harder. That is, if he’d left it in the first place. His bare feet shuffled against the dusty stone. He was at the entrance.

 

“Naruto Uzumaki has 20 seconds to enter the ring or face disqualification!” The voice sounded like it had come from some sort of megaphone. He guessed that was his cue. Naruto grabbed onto the railing and flipped himself heels over head into the ring, where he could see Neji waiting with a deep scowl. He let himself fall freely, with no attempts at evading injury. After all this, after coming here to pay respect to Neji, he didn’t really care if he scraped a knee.

 

He landed a fair few meters away from Neji with a thud and, as he’d predicted, a bloodied knee. He took his time standing up and once he had his feet under him he looked over to the proctor with a lazy sway of his torso. His balance was perfect, now, and he hated feeling so stiff. He was tired, so why shouldn’t he just barely do what he needed to stay on his feet?

 

The referee was holding a senbon in his mouth, but it slipped out to the ground as his lips slackened. His eyes were also bugging out of his head beneath his hitai-ate. Naruto jerked his head away from those eyes. After six months free from the glares or judgement of Konoha citizens, he didn’t know how he felt about being looked at. Especially looking so raggedy. Kami, his teammates up in the stands must think he looks so stupid, having somehow managed to get so beat up and be late for such a big exam. Naruto refused to look up at the stands and check. Kakashi-sensei was probably going to look at him all condescending and apathetic.

 

Naruto looked across the center of the arena to Neji. The Hyuuga was perfectly clean. His clothes were untainted tan, his joints clean and un-chapped. His hair was so straight and shiny draped around his flawlessly polished hitai-ate. Naruto would probably get him all smudged when they fought. Neji would look pretty funny with red-brown streaks all over wherever Naruto hit him.

 

Neji was staring at him with his face all veiny. He’d never seen Neji make an expression that wasn’t pissy before. It didn’t suit him. Whatever look Neji was giving him, it made him look like he was holding back a sneeze. The weirdo was actually leaning forward and gaping a little. Even his teeth were shiny clean.

 

“Hey, Neji!” Naruto shouted over to him with his first smile in what felt like days, “You look really nice! Sorry about how dirty I’m gonna get ya! Also I’ll probably laugh at you when you’re all messed up so sorry in advance! Do your best-ttebayo!” Neji’s jaw dropped a little lower. Still, his expression was less goofy and more angry, now, so that was maybe a good thing. Neji almost looked handsome when he looked like he wanted to kill you.

 

Nothing moved for a long moment, and then the proctor’s watch let out a chime and, seemingly reflexively, the ref said “Match, start!” Naruto planted his heel and spun, sprinting away at a slight angle from Neji. He let his bare feet dig into the dust for speed, staying as low to the ground, as fast, as possible. He could hear Neji shouting and pursuing him at what would for most shinobi be a bad angle to be approached from. Naruto, though, he loved it when he was approached from the side where he’d had his arm ripped off. He ran as fast as he could go in a wide circle, a circle he’d chosen so that his stump would face inwards. It was the perfect bait.

 

His first glance at Neji was when the Hyuuga was mere feet away and Naruto had to swing himself up onto his palm, upside down and pulled forward by his own momentum so that he could land his heel with a deep crack against Neji’s jaw. By the time Neji had snapped his head back forward Naruto was already spinning away in his much faster three-limb rotational movement. For every two or three times he put down a foot, he also used his hand to push himself forward in a front or back or even side flip. It was a bit uncontrolled when he needed to stop, but stopping was not going to be his biggest problem today. He didn’t need skin on his knees anyways. He just needed to complete his circle and then he could end this.

 

Naruto began his circuit by planting one palm into the dirt as he cartwheeled and letting it twist.

 

He was up and continuing his circuit on two feet as soon as he’d planted the mark. He had to distract the Hyuuga, to keep him from noticing the circle. And Naruto knew, the best way to hide a prank is with a prank.

 

Naruto whipped around and launched himself at Neji. Those big, pupil-less eyes look pretty funny all wide open like that. It made Neji look like some sort of bug-eyed bug! Naruto giggled as he used his twisting momentum to break through the unsuspecting Hyuuga’s guard and punch Neji right in the nose. It snapped beneath his fist.

 

Naruto was now tilted forward, in the perfect position for Neji to do anything to him. To touch Naruto in any painful way he wanted. Naruto dropped down bonelessly, not even pretending he was willing to get into a spar, and pushed chakra into his bare feet, activating two seals. He was launched forward right beneath Neji’s extremely fast knee-jab and off running to the next mark point before Neji could wrap him up into an exhausting taijutsu battle that Naruto would almost certainly lose.

 

Naruto’s breath was already coming fast. It made the bruises around his ribs ache, made his nose and eyes sting. His throat felt like he’d swallowed sandpaper. There was blood dripping into his eye again but he must not stop to wipe his forehead, he knew that. Fighting with obstructed sight was a basic survival technique. Naruto cussed under his breath. He’d have to believe he’d learned enough to handle this. A fight where his opponent wasn’t even trying to kill him should be doable. He wasn’t sure why he had to win if his life wasn’t at stake, he couldn’t think well when all his thoughts were focused on the rocks stuck in his feet and the not-enough air in his chest and locks of blonde hair sticking to his neck from blood. Still, he could figure out why he was desperate to defeat Neji after he’d managed it.

 

Naruto hit the next mark and flipped himself forward onto his palm, throwing his legs into a split and spinning them to twist his hand down and make the second mark. This had the added advantage of helping him to dodge an incoming jab from Neji. Naruto let Neji drive him back. Every jab towards one of Naruto’s whatever-points that Hyuugas liked to poke missed by inches as Naruto kept pushing himself back and away. He watched carefully as Neji got angrier and angrier.

 

“This is the end, for you," said Neji. "Talent is decided when the person is born. You were never destined to win this fight.” The Hyuuga’s teeth were gritted. Naruto eyed Neji’s feet and bared his teeth as his opponent rocked his weight forward on his back foot. The Hyuuga slammed his arm forward into a lunge just a tad further forward than he’d used so far. He obviously expected Naruto to jump back again.

 

Naruto lunged forward towards the arm aimed at his neck, let it skim the side of his face, and bit down hard on Neji’s clean, soft forearm.

 

The Hyuuga screamed and his other hand rocketed towards Naruto’s side, but he’d already dropped onto all fours and yanked his head back, throwing Neji off by a mile. The flesh between his teeth separated from Neji’s arm with a harsh slurp and Naruto dug in every finger and toe, even the nail less ones, as he shot away from the enraged Hyuuga. He spat out the lump of bloody skin on his way.

 

“Neji,” he called back to the Hyuuga, “sorry, but I just don’t know when to give up!”

 

The Hyuuga was fast, Naruto would give him that. But Naruto had been running for his life for months. Neji had none of Naruto’s capacity for a desperate, burning sprint or a random, zig-zaggy path meant to keep Naruto away from those precise blows. It also helped that Neji wouldn’t stop clutching his arm. Neji was faster than Naruto in almost every single way, but not when it came to running away until the trap was set.

 

Naruto got two more marks placed as he led Neji around the arena. The Hyuuga was furiously pursuing him, leaping at him with chakra enhanced everything. It was kind of what Naruto had always imagined playing leapfrog would be like. Naruto would jump, so Neji would jump, and in the end they just ended up going in circles exactly as Naruto wanted.

 

“Enough! Stop this foolishness!” cried the Hyuuga. Naruto didn’t stop. Obeying the commands of your opponent struck Naruto as a bit counter-intuitive. “This is the end, for you. You’re in range, and you can’t escape my eight trigrams. Gentle-fist art: Eight-trigams, sixty-four palms!” Neji had stopped and placed his arms and hands in position for what was obviously a new technique. Naruto sped up in his circuit and prepared to launch himself out of the way.

 

Neji came at him in a blue-tinted blur. Everything hurt. He’d had so much worse, so much faster, but Neji just kept jabbing him in what felt like the worst possible places. He could feel his already damaged and incomplete chakra pathways slamming shut, everywhere except around his stump where the chakra pathways were already broken and frayed at the edges. It felt, maybe, two-thirds as bad as getting stabbed. What was worse was that Neji was close to him, hurting him, and moving so fast that Naruto couldn’t even see him. He couldn’t dodge, couldn’t block, he was powerless. Again.

 

Neji finally backed away and Naruto felt dirt and small stones digging into his whiskered cheek. He opened his eyes and kept them on the only part of Neji he could see, his pristine, clean feet. Not a toenail out of place. Naruto was kind of jealous. He missed his toenails.

 

“You’re lucky to still be breathing. Must be frustrating, to realize how utterly hopeless it all was, this little dream of yours. You thought you could succeed through hard work alone? That’s only an illusion. Especially with this new disadvantage of yours.” Naruto planted his hand against the ground and half-shoved, half-rolled himself upright as quickly as possible. Being prone before an enemy rattled every last one of his nerves no matter how stiff and in pain he was in. Also, Neji had just genuinely pissed him off. No one got to talk about stumpy that way!

 

“What disadvantage? You talkin’ about my height you bastard?” While Naruto didn't feel like discussing his arm, he was always ready to complain about his height. Naruto was very frustrated by his apparent inability to surpass 4’10”. He refused to believe it was because of ramen!

 

“Impossible. How could he?” Neji was staring at him with his weird veiny-eyes again. It was pretty dumb of the Hyuuga, how he kept pausing to talk in the middle of a battle, but Naruto figured if he kept Neji talking then he’d have more time to catch his breath. Naruto grinned so that Neji could see every last one of his sharp teeth.

 

“I told you. I just don’t know when to give up.”

 

“Stop this madness! You’ll only get more of the same. I have nothing against you personally.” Neji wasn’t even in a fighting stance. Naruto, however, dropped into one. This match was going to go to whoever could catch the other by surprise. And he did love being surprising.

 

“Ha! That’s touching. You’re gonna make me cry. Anyway, I haven’t got anything against you either.” Naruto started pushing his awareness inwards, to that strange link at the small of his back.

 

“Then why are you even fighting me? You obviously shouldn’t be out of the hospital.” Naruto growled and kept focusing inwards.

 

“Because you’re wrong about who’s a failure. You don’t get to just take out your pissiness on others, you arrogant jackass! I’m here to give you my best fight, and I expect the same from you. Out of respect for an equal Konoha-nin.” Neji scoffed and for the first time this fight he looked truly, albeit angrily, sad. His nose crinkled up in a look like villagers gave him when he tried to buy food.

 

“Arrogant? Equal? Do you know nothing of the Hyuuga clan’s heritage of hatred? For generations the main branch has practiced a secret ninjutsu, the cursed-mark jutsu.” As he spoke, Neji untied and removed his hitai-ate. It made Naruto want to scream, before he saw the tiny green cross on Neji’s forehead that reeked of fuuinjutsu. “It is the symbol. Of a bird trapped in its cage. It’s the mark of those who are bound to a destiny they cannot escape…I was four years old when the leaders of my clan branded my forehead. Lady Hinata’s third birthday. Her father is sitting up there. My father’s twin brother, older by seconds. And so my family is lesser. By my own Uncle I was made a bird in a cage. It is not arrogant to see the truth of this world. You and I will never be equal.” Naruto was horrified. Neji was clenching one fist tight around his hitai-ate. It was the fist on his injured arm. The blood dripped down his inner elbow to the ground faster as his hand shook with pressure.

 

“What does it do to you?" Naruto had to know. The seal on Neji's forehead, it must be... "What does it seal?”

 

“It is the instrument by which they keep us in our place.” Neji spoke like he was delivering a eulogy. Even his veiny-eyes were dead. “We live with the fear that they will use this curse mark to turn out brains to jelly any time they wish. Fear. That is what we live with, every day. And only in death are we free of it. This is how the power of the Byakugan is kept sealed away. Only the Hyuuga possess the secret of our doujutsu, and it is the duty of the branch members to protect that secret, and serve the main branch obediently, without question, for eternity. That is our destiny.

 

"And this match is the same. Your destiny was sealed the moment I was chosen as your opponent. It’s your destiny to lose to me.” Naruto didn’t laugh at him for this. He kind of got it, how it might feel like Neji couldn’t make a difference no matter what. And if he couldn’t change anything, what chance did Naruto have? But, if Naruto believed stuff like that, then he wouldn't be standing here.

 

“Yeah? Then go ahead. Beat me. Your seal is not fair. But that’s because it was never your destiny to be trapped. I will prove that destiny has nothing to do with this! And that’s why you’re right to be mad at your clan.” If Naruto could defeat destiny, then Neji had no excuse not to do the same! Neji didn’t seem to feel that way, because he growled at Naruto and replaced his hitai-ate with a venomous glare. Venomous by genin standards, that was.

 

“You’re a failure, a ninja that can’t even keep himself whole. You impudent little brat. You don’t deserve any explanation from me! You don’t know what it’s like to be branded with a mark that sets you apart. A mark that can never be wiped away!”

 

Naruto burst out into laughter before he even realized it. It echoed strangely shrill and rough against the walls of the arena. Neji actually flinched away from it. Naruto noticed that some blood flung from between his lips. Idly, he wondered if it was his or Neji’s.

 

“Man, you think you’re the only special one around here? Heh.” Naruto smirked ruefully. His secret wasn’t made for being shared, not here. He wished he could, though. Neji shouldn’t have to be alone. “All that crap you said about destiny, you don’t even believe it, do you? You call this obedience, telling me about the worst of the Hyuuga clan? You haven’t given up yet! And neither will I! You know everyone’s weakness, right? Well I’m gonna show you just how wrong you are. So call me a failure. I’ll prove you wrong. I will defy fate! I will break your seal if it’s that last thing I ever do!” Neji scowled and actually turned away from Naruto. This was the dumbest mistake he’d ever seen from a shinobi, turning their back on an enemy. Even if he did have those funky eyes.

 

“Proctor, I suggest you stop the match. I won’t be responsible for what happens to him if he continues.”

 

Even if that enemy was him.

 

Naruto closed his eyes and reached for that spot, that tricky spot between his stomach and the small of his back and called out deep into himself.

 

‘Kyuubi! Lend me the chakra of a tail!’

 

A moment of stillness and black, and then there was red over everything he saw. Naruto felt his aching and twisted chakra pathways burn with power bound beneath his skin. It tore through the closed tenketsu points from Neji’s attack. Naruto was free. He flipped backwards onto his palm before Neji could do more than whirl around to face him, once, twice, three times and laid the final mark with his hand planted in the dirt. Then he swung his feet back under him and ran straight towards Neji, who hastened to meet him right in the middle of Naruto’s circle, looking so completely stunned it was almost insulting.

 

 Naruto stopped a step before Neji. Ignoring the boy completely, he jumped a step into the air, barely hovering a few feet above the ground as he rolled into a ball, took a deep breath, plugged his ears, and closed his eyes. He released the chakra to the final mark, in the dead center of the circle where, not a split-second before, he’d laid his foot.

 

All around Naruto he could feel a strange pressure, then lack, then pressure, then lack again. It sounded like something was cracking inside of his ears, even with them plugged up as best as he could manage with only one hand. The cycle of pressure finally stopped when gravity dropped him to the ground and he released his breath as his touch deactivated the central storage seal he’d laid between the circle of five directed storage seals.

 

Naruto had learned something pretty cool since the preliminary rounds. See, storage seals were kind of stupid if you didn’t tell them exactly what to do. They could store lots and lots of just about anything, but you had to be extra careful to make sure you told them when you wrote them not to store anything too fast, because seals tended to suck stuff in or let it out so quickly it got all twisted if you didn’t write in some sort of time limit. So, Naruto had made some storage seals for air, got rid of the time limit, and then put them in a circle so that they basically connected to each other into a bubble where they’d suck in whatever they were told. By making sure the directions they were written to pull from aligned Naruto had managed to, for a second at most, make a space without any air right where he and Neji were fighting. He’d let out all of his breath before he’d set it off, but Neji hadn’t. His lungs would’ve expanded and then crunched and his diaphragm would’ve gone nuts as the seals frantically cycled to suck in each new input of air. Also, since the air rushing in to fill up the empty space was so fast it made a huge noise and a lot of pressure. Naruto only was okay because he’d prepared himself for it, but Neji had been running at him with lots of straight rigid muscles and panting. He ran straight into Naruto’s trap.

 

In front of him, Neji was laid out on his back out cold. His ears were bleeding, his eyes were surely bloodshot, and his chest was fluttering like he was hyperventilating. As Naruto sat up he watched Neji’s breathing slowly even out, even as several black-clad figures leapt down and checked the boy’s pulse and throat. One looked over to the proctor and raised a thumbs up. Naruto was glad Neji was okay. Although, he’d been right. Neji’s shirt was smeared with dirt and blood all over. He should’ve worn a darker color like Naruto.

 

The ref guy’s senbon was nowhere to be seen as his mouth gaped open at Naruto. The poor man still had his hands over his ears and everything. Slowly, he lowered them as he looked between him and Neji.

 

“Winner is…Naruto Uzumaki!”

 

Fuuinjutsu was Naruto’s favorite thing in the world. And not just because it was in his blood.  

*****

Kakashi felt every bit of air in his lungs leave his body. Beneath his mask, his blood had left his face. His fingers fumbled as he reached up and shoved his hitai-ate up away from his Sharingan eye, staring down at his student.

 

There was no mistake. No genjutsu, no transformation jutsu (although that would take some incredible work), nothing. Naruto’s left arm was truly just gone.

 

And that wasn’t the only problem.

 

Naruto’s forehead was streaked with dried blood half-sweated off, and fresh blood was slowly oozing from an infected head wound that must be days old. Except a jinchuuriki shouldn’t have day-old wounds. He shouldn’t have missing toenails, or skinless knuckles, or scrapes all up and down his remaining arm, or skinned knees.

 

Then again, Kakashi had never heard of a jinchuuriki missing a body part, either. Not even a finger.  

 

The stump of Naruto’s left arm was facing Kakashi as Naruto stood, unsmiling, staring at Neji. It was eerie, to see the hyper blonde so still and blank. The stump was even worse to see. It was knotted up and deep, leaving no bit of the limb behind. It seemed fully healed, but poorly so, with no evidence of medical intervention that Kakashi could see. If anything it looked like the wound had been chewed on and then just left alone. Kakashi doubted he’d ever see such a scar again. Anyone without Naruto’s healing ability would be a corpse if a wound like that went unstitched and ignored. There was no way for Kakashi to tell how old the wound was, what with even the vague idea he’d had of how Naruto’s healing worked now nothing but rubble beneath the sickening weight of the still-bleeding cut on his student’s forehead.  

 

Kakashi twitched and had a kunai in his hand before he realized that it was Sakura tugging on his flak-jacket. The girl should really know better by now, but just this once he’d let it go. It wasn’t her fault he was so on edge. Down the row, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino-Shika-Cho, Asuma, and team 8 were all looking down at Naruto with varying expressions of distress. In the row behind Asuma, Gai was standing up and jogging over to Kakashi with that oddly grim look Gai got almost exclusively on missions. Kurenai was walking with very forced nonchalance towards the Hokage’s box.

 

“Kakashi-sensei! What happened to Naruto?” Sakura asked him with a very shrill voice. Sasuke behind her was alternating between glaring at Kakashi and turning activated eyes to Naruto. Kakashi had never seen the boy look so terrified and confused all at once. The Hyuuga princess, too, was using her doujutsu to see if the Naruto before them was truly as he appeared. She was crying, so she probably saw the same thing as him. Meanwhile, Nara Jr. had obviously given up on his surroundings altogether. Ignoring the panicking Ino and Cho portions of his trio rapidly approaching Kakashi, the Nara heir was standing to lean on the railing, eyes fixed on Naruto, and hands touching at each fingertip in his deepest thinking posture.

 

Before Kakashi could start to corral the baby-genin, Gai reached him and Kakashi gladly let himself be pulled over to the side.

 

“Who did you get for Naruto’s training for the month?” whispered Gai into his ear.

 

“Ebisu. But I heard Jiraiya was planning to train him once he finished his research.”

 

Gai nodded and jogged away. His last look at Kakashi was disappointed, but sympathetic. Kakashi was very familiar with that look, and this time as always he knew down to his bones that he deserved worse.

 

Kakashi turned back to the frantic blob of Genin in front of him. Asuma was performing a summons, except Kakashi watched aghast as a jounin-level shinobi failed to summon anything, even as he tried again. In the meantime, the remainders of team 8 had joined the clump along with Gai's kunoichi, who looked very disturbed and also very annoyed. The Nara, however, had not moved. His thinking pose was unbroken, and he was leaning his whole body forward towards Naruto. Only his eyes were shifted to the side towards Kakashi. The Nara raised one eyebrow at him before turning back to Naruto with an even deeper furrow between his brows.

 

“Maa,” Kakashi started to the small horde of genin, “don’t worry, genin-chans! If anything appears to go wrong, your senseis are ready to stop the match immediately. We’ll take care of Naruto.” He floppily waved a hand towards them. Baby-nin were like puppies. If you stayed calm, they’d stay calm. If you panicked, they’d panic.

 

“Hey, Neji!” Kakashi heard echoing from the arena, “You look really nice! Sorry about how dirty I’m gonna get ya! Also I’ll probably laugh at you when you’re all messed up so sorry in advance! Do your best-ttebayo!”

 

The genin as a clump ran to the railing and peered over the side. Kakashi used his height to watch over their heads. Naruto was smiling. He’d shouted at the Hyuuga boy with his arm stretched straight out ahead of him to point at Neji. It was a startlingly normal look, given he only had one arm to point with.

 

“It’s really him,” whispered a genin from Kakashi’s left. It was the Nara. His thinking pose was broken. Instead, he had his hands clasped together in a shaking, bloodless clench. “Naruto,” the Nara went on, “what happened to you?”


	2. Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is where it all started. One month earlier. Or for Naruto, six months earlier.

Naruto was walking home alone, so he let his smile vanish for the evening. He’d only ‘beaten’ Kiba by the skin of his teeth. He was so angry with himself that he could cry, if he was the sort to cry ever. 

He couldn’t believe he’d been so bad! How’d he always end up dead-last? It was like everything was just easier for everyone else. He wouldn’t ever give up, of course! He was gonna be Hokage, no matter what. So he shouldn’t feel bad about sucking so bad right now. 

Except his eyes kept getting all watery and he kept remembering how close Kiba had been to trouncing him.

Naruto started forward into a dead sprint down the dirty dust road, ignoring all of the civilians who cussed at him or screamed or yelled ‘demon’ at his dust-trail. He’d go home and eat some ramen, and then everything would be better. He’d prefer Ichiraku’s, duh, but he didn’t have any money right now. Hadn’t had any money since the mission pay from Wave Country. It was always hard to afford food when Kaka-sensei stopped assigning D-missions for them, but he guessed training for the Chunin Exams had been more important. Training hungry just meant he got even more badass!

Mid thought, Naruto’s forehead slammed into something warm and tough. He fell backwards and rolled, head slamming into the concrete wall of an alley. 

“Damn it!” he yelled, “watch where you’re goin-ttebayo!”

Then, a blurry hand appeared palm up just before him.

“I’m so sorry!” called a man’s deep voice, “I didn’t see you! Are you okay? Here, let me help you up, please.”

Standing before Naruto was a man with a Konoha hitai-ate, maybe a year or two younger than Iruka-sensei. He was looking at Naruto with concern in his dark brown eyes, and Naruto stilled, unable to move his eyes from the friendly stranger. Haltingly, Naruto placed his hand in the stranger’s own. The stranger smiled and helped Naruto to his feet with an immovable arm, sturdy and reliable. Naruto let go as soon as he was upright, but the stranger took his time removing his hand. His palm was warm, like Iruka-sensei’s. Naruto beamed at the cool guy and started dusting off his orange jumpsuit. It was already dirty, but he wanted this guy to see him at least making an effort. 

“Hi! My name’s Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo! Nice to meet you!” he yelled up at the very tall guy. Tall guy smiled and rubbed at his left bicep.

“Right, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Takashi. It’s really wonderful to meet you, Naruto. I was hoping to run into you, actually, but I guess you ran into me instead.”

Naruto blinked. “M-me?” he asked, pointing at his face. Takashi nodded with a quirky little grin. 

“Right! I saw you in the Chunin Exam preliminaries and I thought your fighting was really amazing. I was hoping you would give me the honor of being your teacher until the examination finals.”

“Yes!” Naruto yelled, leaning forward and clenching his fists beneath his chin, “Seriously? I mean, you’re gonna teach me some cool jutsus?” Takashi smiled and held out his hand once more.

“Come with me, Naruto-kun, and I’ll show you more than a few cool jutsus.” Naruto’s shoulders relaxed from around his years and his smile relaxed. He was so happy he could feel his eyes scrunching up. After Kaka-sensei had told him he’d be training Sasuke all month, and that he’d be given to that bastard Ebisu, he’d thought he wouldn’t get to learn anything before the finals that would help him get revenge on Neji. Now, a super cool guy was actually begging to teach Naruto! Naruto had totally dreamed of this. He giggled and felt his face heat up as he put his hand into Takashi’s and followed him down the street.

“Right, I’m going to shunshin us to my apartment so that you can eat dinner while we get started. How does home-made ramen sound?”

“Awesome-ttebayo!” Naruto yelled up at the taller, smiling man, throwing a victory punch into the air. With the hand not holding Naruto’s, Takashi started on the handsigns for a shunshin.

Just before Takashi whisked him away, Naruto caught a split second to see, across the street, Shikamaru slowly walking parallel to him, hands in pockets, soft eyes looking up to the sky.  
*****  
Takashi’s apartment was totally the best. It was a bit messy, but with lots of kunai and ninja wire all over the place and papers pinned all over the walls. Everything was Shinobi stuff, so Takashi must be super cool. 

Naruto was sitting at the guy’s table slurping up the best ramen he’d ever had outside of Ichiraku’s. Their’s was perfect so this stuff couldn’t ever be as good, but it was pretty damn close. Across from him, Takashi was watching him eat with a little smile and his chin resting on his palm. He looked kind of dopey, all sleepy-eyed and slumped over. Naruto smiled a bit at him through a mouthful and Takashi smiled back, which only made Naruto smile more until he was smiling so hard he couldn’t even eat anymore!

“Right, Naruto, how about we talk about Konoha. See, I was thinking, you said you want to be Hokage, right?” Naruto licked his lips and gave Takashi a thumb’s up.

“You bet! I’m gonna be Hokage someday, dattebayo!” Takashi nodded and rubbed his chin with his thumb and pointer finger.

“Hmm,” he said, “well, I think you’d be a pretty amazing Hokage. I bet under your leadership Konoha would be much better. For one thing, you could make it so that people are nicer to each other, regardless of differences. You could put power with the people that really have the best for Konoha in mind. Does that sound about right?”

Naruto gaped at his new friend. He could feel his face getting super hot and he rubbed at the back of his head. “You…you really, uh, think so? Like, really?”

Takashi smiled and grabbed Naruto’s hand in his own. “Yes. I really do.” Then, he shot to his feet and dragged Naruto up with him. “So come on! We’ve got work to do. I’m going to take you to the perfect training ground, where we can help you become the real best. This way, Naruto-kun.” He walked Naruto into his living room with long strides that Naruto had to jog a bit to keep up with. The living room was so different from the rest of the place that Naruto was stopped dead in his tracks. Takashi just walked on without him, then turned and gestured to the floor of the room.

“This,” he said, “is Fuuinjutsu, the most powerful Shinobi art ever known.” On the floor of the living room was a massive red spiral, wider than Naruto was tall. Nine lines of neatly painted characters radiated from the spiral, evenly spaced and equally long. Naruto, although he couldn’t understand any of it, was enraptured. His eyes drank in the massive seal, and he felt a wrenching need to both run forward and turn back, an urge which led him to taking only a single step forward into the room and then halting. “This seal takes the people inside to another world connected to our own through chakra. One where we can help you to gain the power you need to become Hokage someday. It’ll be hard, but I believe that you can do it, Naruto. And I’ll be with you every step of the way.” Naruto tore his eyes away from the beautiful seal in front of him. Takashi was watching him nervously with one hand outstretched, practically begging Naruto with his eyes. 

“Will, ano…” Naruto stopped, scratching at his ugly whisker marks. “Will it take us out of Konoha? Because, I’m not, I don’t think, supposed to leave.”

“Naruto-kun,” Takashi admonished, “we’re not really leaving Konoha, not so long as the seal is here. I mean, it's not like we're waltzing out the front gates. I promise this will be wonderful, Naruto. I’m going with you, after all, right?” Naruto nodded, finally. He had one option for getting a teacher, and this person was really cool and fed him ramen and knew fuuinjutsu and believed he could be Hokage someday. 

“But you'll definitely teach me? Fuuinjutsu, too?” Naruto couldn’t help but ask.

“Of course!” said Takashi. “I’m so glad you want to learn Fuuinjutsu! Sealing is very pretty, right?” Naruto smiled at last, and nodded as he walked forward and put his hand back in Takashi’s. He’d never held hands with someone so much before. It was kind of nice.

Takashi pulled Naruto closer, so that they both stood at the center of the spiral. He wrapped up Naruto’s hand more firmly in his own, then held out both of their hands right in front of them and flat. Naruto felt a weird wriggling of chakra in his fingertips a moment before Takashi took a deep breath and called out into the room “Fuuin!”

The seal lit up green beneath them, green like leaves in sunlight, and Naruto gasped as his feet hovered a bit off the floor and everything felt much lighter all of a sudden. It was like he was floating on light. Then, the tingling in his fingertips went everywhere and the light flashed so bright he had to close his eyes.

In a small apartment in Konoha, a room went dark as two shinobi vanished into thin air. As soon as they were gone, the seal they had been standing on, too, faded away.


	3. Present

Naruto snorted up a lick of blood trying to escape his nose. That seal had not felt good at all. His eyes were stinging and dry. Not to mention his throat hurt so bad it was getting hard to ignore. 

For the first time since he arrived, Naruto looked up at the crowds, scratching at his whisker marks and slouching a little. Kaka-sensei was in the stands to his right, surrounded by, oh yay, basically everyone his own age that he’d ever met. Sasuke-teme was right there, leaning on the railing and glaring at him with a gaping mouth. Naruto sighed and jogged over to the bit of wall beneath Kaka-sensei and used his hand as well as his feet to climb up. See, he could just walk, but he hated the idea of having his head so far away from the wall. It was like sticking out his neck and begging to get his head chopped off! Like a chicken. Using his one hand meant he could shimmy up the wall nice and close and have an easier escape if he needed it. Of course, nothin’ happened this time and he got up to the railing easy-peasy. He squirmed his way through the gap between the rails and looked right up into the weird face of Kaka-sensei. 

Naruto twitched his arm upwards, almost about to ruffle the back of his head, but then his arm would be used up and Sakura-chan seriously looked like she might hit him. Instead, Naruto put his palm flat against the floor and used it to help prop himself up in his seat on the floor by Kaka-sensei’s feet. Kaka-sensei was staring down at him, still, with his eye open so wide it almost connected his hitai-ate to his mask. 

“Kakashi-sensei, water? Please?” Naruto croaked up at his sensei. He hated asking, hated it so much, but he was so thirsty he’d totally lick Kaka-sensei’s sandals for a drink of water right now. A green canteen passed into his range of vision, held by who-cares-not-Naruto, and Naruto had grabbed it and started choking it down before he even considered if it was safe. The water smelled of nothing, and it was just on the right side of cool. He gulped the water down in huge cheek-puffed mouthfuls, reveling in the drips that trailed down his chin to soak his filthy tank-top. He didn’t stop drinking until he finished the canteen. When he lowered the canteen and gasped for breath, he startled slightly to see Kaka-sensei had knelt down so he was eye-level with Naruto. Naruto twitched back and regretted it right away. All of that water was not settling well, and he was pretty sure he was going to puke all over his sensei in about five seconds. Kaka-sensei leaned forward slightly with a hand extended towards Naruto. Naruto leaned away from the hand and scrunched his eyes shut.

“Breathe through it, Naruto, if you puke you’ll just be more dehydrated.” Naruto nodded a tiny bit and tried to breath normally and ignore how his stomach wanted to work backwards. 

“Naruto!” came a scream to Naruto’s left. Naruto tensed all over, jerking his now-open eyes to the source of the sound and extending his hand slightly towards it, palm out. Kaka-sensei twitched in the same direction, eye firmly on Naruto’s face. The voice was from Sakura, who was either confused or trying to set him on fire with her eyes. “What was that? How did you learn to do all of that stuff? When did you get good at fighting? And why are you so gross? Oh, and yeah, where is your arm!?” Sakura was waving her hands around as she ranted, and as soon as she finished she took a quick step towards Naruto. Naruto slouched, using the motion to move away from Sakura, and let his leg start to bounce. His fist was clenched, hard, and resting against his stomach which had yet to quite settle. 

“Sakura!” called Kaka-sensei, “That’s enough! Everyone but Sasuke, go sit down. Sasuke, get into the arena, now.” Kaka-sensei was growling on each word, and even though his face was all covered the bits that did show seemed pissed. Slowly, and with many glances at Naruto, the crowd obeyed, with Sasuke being the last to leave. At least, that’s what Naruto had thought until Kaka-sensi looked up over Naruto’s head. “You too, Nara.”

Naruto whipped around to see Shikamaru, leaning against the railing, staring at him his hands laced together in front of his mouth. He was staring at Naruto like he was staring at a book, or a map, with focused eyes that were a million miles away. Shikamaru sighed, and then addressed Naruto. “So troublesome, Naruto,” he said. Naruto couldn’t help it. He cringed, furiously scratching his stupid whisker marks, and looked away to see if Sasuke had gotten into the arena yet. He heard Shikamaru inhale sharply. Footsteps started past Naruto and it took everything he had not to look up from Shikamaru’s feet to look at his face. Then, Shikamaru took the choice away from him by kneeling down like Kaka-sensei. “Naruto, the situation is troublesome. Not you. In this instance, I mean. You’re, um, not troublesome, okay?”

Naruto bared his teeth and met Shikamaru’s eyes for the first time since he’d gotten home. Jabbing a finger into Shikamaru’s chest, he yelled right into those dark, focused eyes. “I’m not troublesome ever, yanno! I’m only trouble when I wanna be! So, eto, if you don’t wanna deal with my troublesomeness-“ Naruto cut himself off, yanking his finger back in and coughing a few times, “then, then, then we’ve got somethin’ in common dattebayo! So tell me somethin’ I don’t know, Shikamaru!” Shikamaru’s eyes had finally gone all fuzzy, and his lips were slightly parted. He shoved his hands into his pockets just as Kaka-sensei snapped his fingers in front of his face and ushered Shikamaru away from Naruto, scootching into the space Shikamaru had just occupied. 

“Naruto,” Kakas-sensei hurriedly said, “I don’t know what condition you are in right now, but I know it isn’t good. I do not want you fighting in your next match. Whether it’s Sasuke or Gaara, you are not prepared to face another opponent.” Naruto snorted and rubbed the back of his neck. Kakashi-sensei was sitting on his stump-side. 

“So you think I can’t do it, huh? Well I guess I’ll just have to show ya. I learned great without you, yanno! It doesn’t matter if I’m, eh, tired or whatever. I’ll try anyways!” Kaka-sensei sighed and dragged a hand down his face. 

“Naruto,” he grumbled, “that’s not what I meant. You’re injured. You should be in the hospital.”

“I’m not allowed. And, hey, you think missing an arm is an injury? I don’t need it! It’s uh, ano, unnecessary! I’m still a shinobi and I’m just as good a fighter-ttebayo! You’ll see. Then, then, if I win, you won’t be able to get rid of me.” Kaka-sensei sighed even longer and deeper. He looked exhausted.

“I can’t stop you. At this point in the chunin-exams it’s not my decision.”

Naruto nodded and tucked his arm behind his head to lean on as he looked out into the arena. “Ano, Kakashi-sensei, that is it’s like, um, do ya, maybe eh…” 

“Spit it out, Naruto.”

“Have you got anything to eat? I’m starving.” Kakashi-sensei wordlessly tossed a rations bar at Naruto, who caught it quickly in his hand and used his teeth to rip off the wrapper. He devoured it as Kakashi-sensei walked away to stand with a clump of adults, adults Naruto was pretty sure were the Jounin-senseis for his classmates. Also the weird green dude was there. When Naruto peeked over at them, the green dude gave Naruto a thumbs up and a grin so shiny it looked like he’d eaten a lightbulb. Naruto quickly looked away back to Sasuke and Gaara down in the arena. 

The referee guy looked like he was about to start the match. The circle Naruto had sealed was a bit dented, and the perfect circle in the middle of the arena looked out of place, especially with Sasuke and Gaara standing on either side of it right across from each other. Sasuke was glaring and settling into a stance, but Gaara was just standing there with his hands over his ears. He wasn’t even looking at Sasuke.

The match began and Sasuke immediately jumped back away from Gaara, holding his hands at the ready. He probably was planning some flashy jutsu, was what Naruto assumed. He didn’t start it, though, instead he just stopped and stared at Gaara. Gaara hadn’t moved. He was still standing there, only his muttering was getting loud enough for Naruto to kind of hear. It sounded like he was calling for his Mother. 

Sasuke, impatient as always, couldn’t wait much longer. He ran forward, with his usual obnoxiously perfect form, apparently deciding to get into a taijutsu match instead of using a ninjutsu. Sasuke reared back to punch Gaara right in the face. Gaara didn’t even notice he’d approached. Then, instead of sand bursting forth to deflect Sasuke’s blow, Sasuke’s fist landed against Gaara’s cheekbone with a sharp crack. Gaara fell to the ground, limp, and sent up a tiny cloud of dust as his head lolled bonelessly onto the dirt. Sasuke actually took a few steps back and dropped his guard slightly. He was gaping down at the Suna-nin, just like most of the stadium.

Across the stadium, three faces in particular were making a ruckus. It was Gaara’s genin team and Jounin-sensei. The guy, the one who looked like a cat with purple paint, was shouting something about impossibleness and evacuation. The girl was shouting at the Jounin-sensei, asking about what the hell just happened. 

Eventually, the stadium calmed and a few Suna paramedics came and scooped Gaara onto a stretcher. Naruto sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck, pouting slightly. He guessed that told him how the Ichibi was doing.


	4. Past

Naruto opened his eyes. Wincing at the still bright light, he clung to Takashi’s hand with both of his own. It was late in the evening a minute ago, so Naruto was pretty confused to find himself outside in the midday sunshine out of nowhere.

“Welcome to the Summoning Realm,” said Takashi, releasing his hands, “the home of all living chakra.”

Naruto gasped, raising one hand to his eyes to shield them from the sun as he drank in his surroundings. This place was, no question, the most beautiful place ever. Nothing could possibly be better than this place. Not even Konoha. 

Takashi released Naruto’s hands and threw his arms into the air, laughing in joy. There was nothing in sight until the horizon but for hills of grass so wide-reaching that Naruto could see the banks of wind sweeping over the distance like ripples across a lake. The edges of the world were feathered with mountains higher than Naruto had imagined anything could reach, even the clouds. And most awesome, at the very furthest reaches of where the sun met the earth, an evergreen tree, bristling and glowing, scattered its needles through the sky, taller than the mountains around it, piercing the sun as it set to cast Naruto and Takashi into a world dappled with shadow and sun alike. Naruto felt like he was being pulled toward that tree, unable to look away even as Takashi whooped and threw himself down the hill, running with his arms held out like a child. Naruto was frozen. He’d never seen just how big the world could be. That he and Takashi were the only people in sight for what must be hundreds of miles was hard to swallow. He should feel more alone than ever, but instead Naruto felt like he was home. 

“Naruto-kun!” Takashi yelled up at him from the base of the hill. He was beaming, hands cupped around his mouth. “Come on! It’s gonna take us weeks to reach that tree as it is! We’ve got a few hours of light left, so let’s hustle!” Naruto gasped and ran down the hill as quickly as he could. He didn’t want Takashi to leave him behind. He skidded to a halt next to Takashi and pouted when his new friend ruffled his hair. “That tree out there? You see it, right?”

Naruto looked up to Takashi and incredulously scrunched one eye shut. “Duh!” he yelled, “who could miss it?” Takashi just laughed harder.

“Well, it's the easiest way to get back to Konoha. We’ve got about a month to get there, and it’ll take all that time even if we walk all day every day. We're going to train on the way, alright?” Naruto nodded furiously, then punched the air.

“Yatta! This is gonna be amazing dattebayo!” Takashi snickered and wrapped an arm around Naruto’s shoulders, pulling him forward into a brisk walk towards the horizon. 

“I know, it’s a miracle, right? I never thought I’d get here and now we’re so close. You’re going to learn so much Naruto-kun, I promise. This place is perfect. From here, we can really make a difference.”

“What is this place, anyways?” Naruto asked, jogging every few steps to keep up with Takashi’s really long legs. Takashi made a small ‘ah’ noise.

“Right! I didn’t explain very well, did I? Well, do you know what a summons is?”

Naruto shook his head. “Not really.”

“Well, some shinobi have signed a contract with a summons species, so that they can use a bit of chakra to pull an animal companion from this world to our world. The animal has to agree, at first, and it takes more chakra the bigger the animal. Also, most summoning contracts travel in clans, so it can be hard to find one to sign, right? Some shinobi manage to reverse-summon themselves here and get a contract that way, but it’s really dangerous. So, we used a seal instead, right? That means we can stay longer.”

“Wow,” said Naruto, “so this place is full of animals that belong to ninja?”

“Not quite right,” said Takashi, “it’s more like everything on this side is made of chakra, including the animals. If you can get some of that chakra to like you, then it might agree to help you out, but that doesn’t make the chakra yours. Not unless you…well, but that’s irrelevant, right?” Naruto wasn’t sure what Takashi meant with that ‘irrelevant’ stuff, but he nodded anyways. “Right. We’re not here for summons animals, though. We’re here to train you! And once we reach that tree, you’ll know lots of cool things, and then we can use the tree to get you and I back to Konoha for you to show everybody just who’s going to be Hokage.”

“Me!” Naruto yelled out over the plains, “I’m gonna be Hokage-ttebayo!” Takashi laughed.

“Right!”  
*****  
Once it got dark, Takashi called for them to stop for the night and sleep. Naruto flopped over onto the grass and huffed. He was so tired! Sleeping on the dirt wasn’t going to be super nice. Naruto felt a thump to his left and turned his head over, opening his eyes to see Takashi looking at him with a little smile. His new friend had laid down next to him in the grass, with his hands folded over his chest.

“Psst,” whispered Takashi, “Naruto. Look up.” Naruto frowned and pointed his face back upwards and gasped.

Above them was the night sky. Naruto could have been back in Konoha, he knew all of the constellations, but the sky had never been so clear back home. The difference alongside familiarity drew his eyes like magnets. He could see everything. He’d never known, but it turned out the night sky wasn’t black at all. It was blue and purple and deep with streams of color and shadow. The stars had always reminded him of little holes punched into a piece of fabric, before tonight. Here the stars looked like snowflakes that had fallen upwards. They looked crystalline, glowing and cold, but touchable. They weren’t flat, weren’t little speckles of light, they were stars. Round, whole, stars floating like clouds in a sky so massive it bent at the edges. Naruto was inflating inside with every breath of air, inhaling that starlight until he, too, bent at the edges. 

He and Takashi stayed there forever. The moon stayed near the mountains, not so much rising as circling them. Naruto shivered in his jumpsuit as the moon gained a bit of height with each passing look.

“Here,” whispered Takashi. Naruto glanced over and saw him pulling out a scroll with a seal painted on, which he opened, poked with one finger-tip, and then pulled apart to reveal a puff of smoke and two sleeping bags and two ration bars, just like magic. “We’ll cook proper meals tomorrow,” said Takashi, passing him one sleeping bag and one bar. Naruto nodded. He didn’t want to talk and let the starlight out of his chest.

In silence, he and Takashi sat up and laid out their bedding side-by-side. Takashi had his ration bar half sticking out of his mouth, but Naruto choked his down as fast as possible and then threw himself back down onto his bed, staring back up at the night sky. It looked different, looking again, yet it looked exactly the same. Nothing had changed, but he felt so different looking at it. 

“It’s like,” Naruto whispered, “like I’m not alone.”

Naruto flinched and clasped a hand over his mouth, peering over at Takashi to see if his new friend was laughing at him or not. Takashi, though, had nothing to say. He was already asleep next to him. Naruto relaxed and went back to watching the stars.

He couldn’t remember falling asleep. In his dreams he never looked away.  
*****  
Daytime was weird, in this place. 

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. He and Takashi were walking through the field, and the blades of grass were tickly against his toes. Everything interesting was far away at the horizon, all that was around here was grass and wind. It was pretty, sure, but it seemed like Takashi was actively keeping them away from the forests and mountains in the distance. For someone in a hurry, he sure was picky about how they got to the tree. Naruto sighed and crossed his arms behind his head, pouting and trying to imagine all the cool stuff Sasuke was learning while he was walking through a field. Takashi was walking and smiling and looking around as if this was the most interesting place ever. It was way too quiet. 

“I don’t get it! How can the tree be so far away? It’s right there!”

“It only looks as close as it does because it’s so big. We’re still almost a month away, right.”

“So, we just go East for, like, ever?”

“No, that’s not East. The Sun doesn’t set in the same direction, here. Only the tree can be trusted.”

“But, if the tree’s in the same place, then that means the Sun’s rising and setting in the same place!”

“Exactly!”

Naruto frowned over at the sun. It was midday, it had to be because they’d been walking forever, but the Sun was still just hovering above the feather-mountains. It’d risen, gotten just above the tree, and then started on the same route it moved every day. Instead of up and over, it went all the way around. Then, it got to the same place at the tree and set. It was funky. And then, at night, the moon did the exact same thing! At least, Naruto thought it did. He didn’t stay up quite that late. 

“But why?” Naruto pouted up at Takashi. Takashi grinned down at him and grabbed one of Naruto’s hands into his own. It was super sweaty. 

“Well, this place goes sort of perpendicular to our world,” said Takashi.

“Perpendicular?”

“Ah, right,” Takashi replied, “well, you’ll have to know these things in order to learn sealing. Perpendicular means that two lines meet at a right angle. Think of it like a clock. See, if the tree is 12, then the line from 12 to 6,” Takashi pointed forward and backward, “meets the line from 3 to 9” Takashi pointed left to right, “at a right angle. Right like this,” Takashi pointed at twelve and 3, “like the corner of a room. Two walls meet perpendicularly, rightly.”

“Oh,” said Naruto, “so it’s like, the opposite of parallel. Why didn’t ya just say that?” 

Takashi stopped dead, clenching down on Naruto’s hand and staring down at him. Naruto stared back up at him with his eyes scrunched nearly shut. Takashi shook his head slowly and then looked forward and started them walking again. 

“Right,” Takashi finally said, “I’ll start teaching you how to write a storage seal. It can’t do a lot, it just holds things, but it makes carrying supplies much easier. You’ll be able to carry your own tent. Useful, right?”

“Aww,” Naruto scratched at his whisker marks, “can’t you teach me something cool?” Takashi’s hand squeezed his again. Naruto kind of wished he’d let go. 

“Gotta walk before you can run, right?”  
*****  
That night, when Naruto and Takashi stopped for dinner, there was still light out. Takashi, after making some pretty yummy stew, had pulled out a bunch of paper, ink, and brushes, and started teaching Naruto the most complicated stuff he’d ever seen in his life. He’d never focused on something so hard, but he just couldn’t look away. The lines Takashi was drawing were so beautiful, and the first time that Naruto realized why Takashi was putting one line against another Naruto felt like he’d burst inside with how stunningly lovely it was, how cool he was to know how chakra was moving through a line of ink and what it would do. Then Takashi had handed him the brush and told him to write.

The first line Naruto created was black, ruffled on the edges like the mountains ruffled the horizon, and ended in splintered splots. The chakra moving through the swipe was scrunchy, and the lone line was, according to Takashi, ‘wrong in every way.’

Takashi would have to pry Naruto’s ink brush from his cold, dead hands. He couldn’t stop smiling, jiggling his leg and flushing all over. Takashi had smiled a little, and then gone right back to yelling about what he did wrong, without even once hitting Naruto for being dumb. 

“No! The dash goes here, right? This is where the seal delineates the contents. Unless you want the whole thing to blow up-“  
*****  
“-without damaging what’s inside, you need to add a sensor line here.” 

Naruto had been working on the core of the seal for days now. He’d practiced things like kunai, or punching for this long, but he’d never sat down and tried to learn something for long. 

“The character for the sensing, it’s gotta point, um, out right?”

“You got it, Naruto-kun! Now, what characters could work for sensing?”

“Umm, ano, ano, maybe, um, like light? I think light would fit, but if it sensed light it would go off almost all the time, wouldn’t it? Like from sun and stuff. And it can’t just be chakra, because you told me I’m not supposed to write chakra anywhere yet.” Naruto scratched his whisker marks and twiddled his paintbrush. His fingernails hit a blob of clotted ink on his cheek. Takashi nodded and smiled, and Naruto beamed back up at him.

“Right, chakra is a character you’re a few years away from using. Sensors can be defined by whatever you have the skill to write. I’ve always favored pressure-“  
*****  
“- but not too much pressure or you’ll bend the bristles outward. A messy line is a messy seal, right?” 

Naruto’s brush was simple, white along the body and black at the tips, like fur. Takashi had told him on day one that a messy brush was the mark of a really bad sealer. Ink was only for the tips. Naruto had done his best, but getting enough ink to make the whole line and keeping his brush clean and not using so much ink that it’d splat all over the place was super hard. Takashi said he was getting better, but then he’d keep saying over and over ‘a messy line is a messy seal’ and then making him start over. Naruto could tell it was bad, it looked bad and it felt bad with his chakra. He didn’t need to hear it so often!

“Do that again, Naruto-kun, but this time don’t-“  
*****  
“-do that again! You could have sucked us into that seal like so much organic sludge, right! Seals are stupid, you have to tell them how much time to take, and distance over times makes velocity, and velocity means acceleration, and a mass undergoing acceleration means force. Do you want to have an approaching-infinite acceleration implementing an approaching-infinite force on a finite mass?” 

“Uh…what?”

“Right. Right, so velocity is like, traveling from one end of Konoha to the other in one day versus one hour. Traveling in one hour is faster, right? So that means it’s a higher velocity. Acceleration is like how quickly you start running, if you start with a jog and then ease into running you’ve got a low acceleration. The bigger acceleration, the more force something has. Like throwing a kunai, the faster you throw the deeper it goes into the target. A storage seal is the target, and whatever you’re sealing is the kunai. If you seal it too fast, then it bends or dulls or breaks altogether. So you have to decide how fast you want the kunai to go.”

“Wait, are you saying that when stuff goes fast it gets squishy? But, but that’d mean that there’s stuff in the way that it’s gotta push against, like swimming.”

Takashi stared at him for a moment then chuckled and shook his head. “You really never cease to surprise, Naruto-kun. That’s exactly right. Air, like we breathe, has mass and density just like water or stone. We’re just used to it. Birds push on the air with their wings to fly, and we pull on it to breathe. And when you seal something, it has to travel through the air. And if it goes too fast, the air makes it bend.”

“Wow,” Naruto breathed, “That sounds super weird. Like, that’s not how I got taught anything. Are you sure? Like, is some air thicker or thinner? Is there anywhere without anything? Like, is there ‘nothing’ anywhere?”

“Wow indeed,” Takashi muttered, “Right, well, some air is thicker or thinner, but when that happens you should hold your breath, because the air is probably not safe. I’ve heard about the idea of a space without air, but it’s really hard to make. It’s called a vacuum. You’ll probably never deal with one, not really. The kind of seal it would take to make an empty space would pull apart everything around it.”

“Oh!” Naruto yelled, “Cuz’ air is like water, right? So if a space is empty it’ll try really hard to go in. And you said air can push or bend stuff, right? So if it really wants to go somewhere then it’d be like a- a- a whirlpool!”

“Right! Exactly right. You’re really somethin’ Naruto-kun. You don’t want to make a whirlpool, so you don’t-“  
*****  
“-need to worry, Naruto-kun. I know only learning one seal seems like it’s not a lot, but you’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined when we started two weeks ago. You’re a real Uzumaki, alright.”

Naruto and Takashi were finally closer to the Tree. They were stopping later and later in the night, so Takashi was making him practice his storage seal while they walked. Naruto couldn’t even make clean lines while sitting still. Hearing something about his family, that made him jerk his line into completely the wrong direction. Naruto ignored the crackling of bad chakra in his ink, and whipped his head around to stare at Takashi, fists clenched so hard they were shaking.

“Real…Uzumaki? Why would you say that?” he asked. Something tense and hungry was rising in his belly. Takashi frowned and looked over at him, giving him a quick glance from foot to forehead. Even the slight pause made Naruto feel like he might rip Takashi open with his bare hands to find out whatever the man knew about Naruto's family.

“Because the Uzumaki used to be amazing. Before they were all killed. All except your parents.”

“My parents? What," Naruto's breath was even, but his voice was tiny as he held Takashi's blank gaze to ask, "what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Takashi murmured, voice low and soft. His eyes darted away from Naruto's. “I have no idea who your parents were, but I know an Uzumaki when I see one. The chakra, the talent for sealing, the joy and laughter. The Uzumaki were a vibrant clan, the clan most blessed and skilled of the Hidden Villages." Takashi smiled slightly, but his eyes were fixed on thin air, and when his smile faded Naruto could hear a weight fall into Takashi's voice. "Before Uzushiogakure was wiped out."

After a few seconds, Naruto couldn't take Takashi's mournful silence. "Wiped out?" he desperately asked. A shadow fell over Takashi's face.

"Kiri and Konoha’s greatest sin was the ending of Uzushio. You’ve really never been told?”

“No,” Naruto mumbled, “nobody’s told me nothin’. Tell me more? About the, my, um…”

“Uzushiogakure. Rightly, Uzushio was an island village, in the land of Whirlpool. I’ve heard said that it was the most beautiful land in our world. That the streets were wrought from red stones, and the buildings themselves were carved into the hill down to the edge of the ocean. The sunset into the sea would burn the whole town crimson and gold." Naruto couldn't begin to imagine the reality behind Takashi's words, but the wistfulness of the man's tone still had him picturing a red glow and the beat of waves.

Clenching his fist, Naruto promised himself that, someday, he'd see it for himself. The only reason he didn't promise out loud was because Takashi wasn't finished.

"They carved seals into every wall, every column, every brick," he went on. As he spoke, he began twirling his sealing brush between his fingers. "The village could withstand an army with the power of sealing they buried deep into the earth. The Uzumaki were the only clan there, the brilliant spine of the best of the shinobi nations. They were vivacious, with bright hair and eyes and loud voices, massive pools of chakra they infused into seals they pierced into their skin. Gems from every earlobe, tattoos on every arm, and the glow of light and happiness, genuine and truthful, in every whirlpool eye. Their mark was the swirl, like you have on your jumpsuit, like I and every chunin has on their flak-jacket. The crimson whirlpool.” Takashi twisted where he sat to display his vest to Naruto. There, just like on Naruto's own jacket, was an embroidered patch showing the crimson red spiral. Naruto had to hold himself back from reaching out to touch.

“Why would Konoha-nin have the Uzumaki crest?" he blurted. Then, he had a horrifying thought. "Did they steal it?!”

“Yes," Takashi gravely replied, nodding once before bending forward so his face was level with Naruto's. "When Kiri took their army, and destroyed Uzushio in a week-long siege, Konoha never came. Konoha and Uzushio were sister villages, always close, always devoted. The Uzumaki women married into Konoha, and vice versa. I can only assume you were born of such a union. When Konoha realized what they’d allowed to occur, they took the spiral onto themselves as a mark of their shame. And yet, now, no one even remembers. And the last Uzumaki wears his crest without even knowing the meaning behind his birth right.” Naruto felt Takashi's words like a jab to the ribs.

“Last…Uzumaki? The very last?” Naruto pressed his fists against his stomach. The paper in his hand was crumbled. The brush was perfectly fine.

“I’ve searched for a long time. I’ve found shinobi with bright hair, shinobi with oceans of chakra, even shinobi from Whirlpool country. But none of them were real. None of them were full of life, like you. You’re the only one that was right. That’s when I knew, I had to bring you here. Sealing, these seals I’m teaching you, are in your blood.”


	5. Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings at end note.

“We’ll reach the tree early tomorrow.”

Naruto looked up at Takashi from his seat in the grass. He and Takashi were working on storage seals even now, almost four whole weeks after meeting. The only thing Naruto had managed to seal so far was plain old air. Takashi kept telling him not to be disappointed, but it was hard not to get frustrated by how every little mistake added up to make everything go wrong. Still, Naruto mustered up a smile at Takashi’s news. 

“Awesome! What’re we gonna do when we get there?” Takashi giggled and grabbed Naruto around the waist, hugging him tight to his much taller frame. Naruto grumbled and squirmed until Takashi released him. He’d given up his jumpsuit a few days ago, and the shorts and tank top Takashi had loaned him were much thinner. It helped with the heat, but it also left Naruto feeling pretty exposed. 

“That, Naruto-kun,” Takashi whispered into his ear, “is a surprise.” Then the man flopped backwards, staring up at the sky with a goofy smile on his face. He had his arms crossed over his chest like some sort of mummy Naruto would see on late-night television. “What do you think of Konoha, Naruto?”

Naruto scratched his whisker marks and frowned down at Takashi. His friend was still staring up at the night sky, and the fire cast a shadow over his eyes that Naruto couldn’t see through. “Well, ano…” Naruto stalled, “Konoha is my home? Yeah, so I like it a lot. What’sit matter?”

“Rightly, Konoha is my home too. I was born there, raised there. I think that Konoha broke something right in me. Something only an Uzumaki could heal.” Takashi sighed deeply as Naruto stared. “Everyone there is so full of hatred. We’ll do anything, kill anyone, mothers and children, right, just for the sake of living another bland, meaningless day. Uzushio meant something. Joy, and truth, and beauty, and innovation. Things worth killing for. I’m just as bad, Naruto-kun. I hate almost everything. But I love you, right. So I guess, even if I am cursed to be dark and lifeless inside, maybe I can make the world a little bit better for you. Then, maybe, I’ll be able to keep you. Protect you from the hatred inside you.” Naruto bit down hard on his lip and stared down at the ground.

He didn’t know what to say.

“Sh-shut up!” he yelled. “Konoha isn’t like that! And neither are you! You’re super nice, not full of hate! It’s your choice who you wanna be!” Naruto pounded his fists against the ground before throwing dirt onto the fire. The smoke curled up into the air in messy chunks of spirals. Naruto reflexively tried to find the shapes of seals in the smoke, but the night air broke apart the whorls too fast for anything to be written in the air. Takashi giggled a little more. Naruto hated that laugh. Takashi laughed so much, and Naruto never knew what he found so damn funny.

Takashi loved him, though. That meant a lot. So Naruto would have to stay by his side and help him feel better. He’d start tomorrow.

“Thank you, Naruto.”  
*****  
Naruto and Takashi crested the hill at last, finally able to see the entirety of the Tree. A single strip of bark was the size of the Hokage Monument, and the roots were just as tall. Yet, even here at the bottom, tiny clusters of branches and newborn trees were growing, leaving the valley around the tree as lush as any forest near Konoha. 

“We made it…” Takashi whispered next to him. “We made it!” Takashi laughed and grabbed Naruto’s hand, rushing them to the base of the tree with a shunshin before Naruto even had time to take in the massive Tree in front of him. Because seriously, this was a capital ‘t’ Tree. 

“Takashi!” Naruto shouted, wrenching his hand away from his friend’s. Takashi ignored him, and instead started muttering to himself under his breath like a crazy person.

“By the triple-twisted root…next to the mark…ah ha!” Takashi jolted forwards and planted one palm onto a random spot on the Tree trunk, and Naruto enviously scowled as a seal spread inklessly from beneath Takashi’s palm. As soon as the seal flashed, a doorway appeared to the right of Takashi’s hand. Naruto gasped.

“Wow! Takashi, how the hell didya know to do that? What’s inside of there? Are we going in-ttebayo?”

Takashi smiled down at him, with eyes so bright he looked like it was his birthday and this was his present. Then, he placed one finger over his lips, smirked at Naruto, and gently ushered him inside. 

This place was holy. Naruto took deep breaths and let starlight bend him at the edges.

Inside the tree it was nighttime. Not just dark, but nighttime, with stars and everything. Only inside the tree, the stars were green, and Naruto could reach them. Scattered across the walls, the ceiling, even the floor, tiny patches of steady green glow gave Naruto just enough light to see he was at the bottom of a spiraling cavern, one that stretched so high darkness swallowed the edges entirely, leaving Naruto standing alone on a floating island of stone-like wood. His only point of reference was the starlight. Naruto reached up and caught a tiny green glow between his palms, cupping it gently and gasping at the warmth it radiated. As soon as it touched his skin, the glow went just the slightest bit lighter. Naruto slowly pulled his palms away and beamed as the little star floated away, drifting up the tree.

“Shit!” Naruto whipped around when Takashi shouted. His friend was frantically patting his arm, which had a shiny red spot on it that was already blistering over. A little green star was drifting down from near his elbow. The doorway that should be behind him was gone.

“Takashi!” Naruto yelled. He jogged over, but Takashi waved him off. Naruto hovered uncertainly in front of the scowling man. “It’s nothing, Naruto-kun. Be careful not to touch any of the fox fire, alright? It burns just like any other kind of fire does.”

“Eto, what’s fox fire?” Naruto asked, nervously twiddling his fingers. His very not-burned fingers. 

“It’s not important,” Takashi huffed. “Now come on. We’ve got a long way to climb.” Naruto nodded and kept his mouth shut, crossing his arms behind his head so he wouldn’t get tempted to touch anything else. This place didn’t feel right to talk in. 

Naruto led the way up the winding pathway up the inside of the tree. More than once, he was about to step into empty air but a little green ‘fox fire’ would float right where he was about to step and he’d pull his foot away. Behind him, Takashi was grumbling and huffing every few minutes. Naruto had the painful realization that he was probably just as annoying as Takashi when he did that with his team. 

He wondered what Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-teme were doing. Had Sasuke mastered his Sharingan yet? And what about Sakura-chan, she probably wasn’t doing any training at all without their sensei around to make her. Hinata-chan was probably still in the hospital, along with Bushy-brows. Neji must be training super hard. Naruto wondered if he trained with his dad, or if the Hyuuga had some sort of other thing going on. They seemed kind of weird, and they had a doujutsu so they probably needed special training like Sasuke. In fact, all of the Konoha-nin except for Naruto who were going to be fighting had some sort of clan specialty thing. Neji had his freaky eyes, and so did Sasuke. Shino had his bugs. And Shikamaru had his shadows. 

Naruto smiled when he imagined what Shikamaru was doing right now. His sensei must be trying so hard to get him to train, but Shikamaru would just laze around in the grass and watch the clouds go by. Sometimes, Naruto swore that Shikamaru put more effort into being lazy than it would take to just train and get it over with! Shikamaru was pretty smart, being able to do stuff like that and be a really cool shinobi. His shadows were so much cooler than the Sharingan or whatever, that’s what Naruto thought. Almost as cool as sealing.

Oh. Sealing was an Uzumaki clan technique. Not exactly, but Takashi had said it was in his blood. So, even though he wasn’t good enough to use it yet, he still had something from his clan, just like the others. It wasn’t as flashy as eyeballs or swarms of bugs, but it was so much more awesome. And it was really hard to understand and figure out how to use. Shikamaru, with his shadows, would probably understand sealing the best out of anybody Naruto knew. 

“We’re here.”

Naruto stopped and looked back over his shoulder. Takashi was gesturing ahead of them, and Naruto turned back around and saw a weird sort of doorway only just starting to gather up fox fire around the edges. Naruto jumped a little as Takashi brushed by him and grabbed his hand on the way. 

“Put your hand against the door, Naruto-kun,” he said. Naruto pressed the palm Takashi was holding the wrist of up against the doorway. “It needs a bit of your blood. Hold still.” Takashi had a kunai in his other hand. Naruto felt his eyes bug out and his wrist twitch, but Takashi had already sliced a tiny notch into the side of his hand, and when Naruto flinched away it smeared over the doorway. Takashi released his hand and grimaced at him for a quick moment, then turned back to the doorway with hungry eyes. 

For a few seconds, Naruto thought nothing would happen. Naruto was just about ready to start yelling at Takashi for cutting him, but the doorway shuddered and Naruto’s breath hitched. Inch by inch, the doorway cracked straight down the middle and slid away into its own frame, leaving a hole brimming with light. 

“Sunlight?” Naruto whispered. Except, that didn’t sound quite right. Takashi didn’t answer, he just walked ahead into the room, and Naruto followed after him. Takashi stopped right inside the doorway, but Naruto walked forward a few steps further. His heart was pulling him inwards, towards the unknowable feature at the center of the Tree. 

The room was circular, following the edge of the tree, and massive just like the outside. There was no more fox fire here, no more stars, which made sense because this room held the Sun. At the center of it all, with tree-rings orbiting it like ripples in a pond, a tree made of glass stretched up, so far it faded out of sight into nothing but sunlight, bright enough Naruto had to look away. Where the glass connected to the floor there was only one massive tube, wider around than Naruto and Takashi together. The glass tree did not begin to branch until it was so tall that it must be level with the clouds. Naruto shivered and held his fingers up towards that light. Because the light came from inside the glass tree within a tree. Behind the glass sunlight as thick as honey, fading at the edges into the green of fox fire, was flowing upwards into the sky. 

With every beat of Naruto’s thunderous heartbeat, pumping through his ears and throat and chest, the light thrust upwards higher through the branches of the glass tree. Tiny bubbles floated with the current, and streaks of green and white light twisted and curled up along the flow like eddies in a stream. Even as his heart beat, his chakra flowed through his body in pulsing waves and Naruto knew as sure as he knew his own breath what this was. This vessel, here at the center of the tree, was the source of all the chakra in the Tree. This was how the Tree had grown so tall. This chakra was so pure, so vast, that it became liquid, strong enough to be pumped upwards like water, like lifeblood. Naruto had never felt so small, but the chakra before him beckoned to him like the warmth of the stars below. He was a tiny piece of this, a drop compared to a lake, but he still belonged. The Tree was happy he was here. 

“Beautiful…there isn’t anywhere in either world with more chakra in one place.” Naruto turned on his heel and snarled from deep in his throat.

Irrationally, as soon as Naruto remembered he was there, he wanted to kick Takashi in the face. The colors of his hair and skin stuck out against the wood, his steps echoed against the bubbling water noise of the chakra inside the vessel, even his breath felt like it disturbed the air. Naruto felt at home down to his bones, and that same instinct was screaming at him that Takashi should never have known about this place, let alone come here. This place belonged to him, not to some petty huma-

Naruto’s fingernails were sharp. 

“Don’t worry, Naruto,” Takashi whispered from behind him, “I’ll keep you safe”.

Naruto felt something unyielding smack into the back of his head, and his world went dark.  
*****  
Naruto woke up and the sun was shining in his eyes. It was super annoying, and he tried to pull his arm up to shield his eyes, except his wrist was stuck on something. Both of his wrists were stuck on something. Naruto blinked open his eyes and looked upwards into the flow of chakra inside of a tree within a tree, and remembered instantly where he was. Naruto’s breath started coming in short little gasps and he lifted his head as best he could. He was bound, with rope around each wrist and ankle, to a rectangular stone, and Takashi was standing at the edge of the table. He was holding a kunai. Naruto’s throat and stomach burned with acid, and his shoulders shook when he looked down the length of his body and saw that the seal, the nine-tailed demon seal, was not only visible, but had been sliced into his body over the ink. 

“I’m glad you woke up, Naruto-kun. Now we can start what we really came here for, right?” Naruto’s gaze shot upwards to Takashi’s own. He was still wearing his hitai-ate, still smiling, he looked the same as ever. His hands were smeared with blood. 

“What the hell did you do, Takashi? Let me go!” Naruto howled. Takashi just kept smiling and shook his head slowly back and forth.

“You need this, Naruto. I’ve had to seal your chakra into your body, but you’ll get it back once the Kyuubi is gone. See, I can’t open the Aeorta without it, but if the Kyuubi has a way out, then it’ll just kill me before I can even start the procedure.” Naruto made an inarticulate, garbled noise from deep in his throat. Takashi apparently took it as confusion. “That’s what this is, you know. The Aeorta. Without this, our world wouldn’t have any chakra. Oh, you look surprised. Right, well, I don’t blame you. Even if Konoha teachers weren’t complete hacks, almost no one knows the origins of Chakra. See, this world, the Summoning Realm, it’s entirely made of chakra, right? Well, that chakra bleeds into our world through nine golden trees like this one. This one, though, is the biggest. This is the tree of the Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox. Without the Kyuubi, this place cannot be touched.”

“So, so,” Naruto’s breath hitched, “you used me?” Takashi’s smile vanished, and he frantically shook his head no, walking around to sit on the stone by Naruto’s side. Some of Naruto’s blood soaked his pants. 

“No! No, of course not. I’m doing this for you, Naruto. I love you. An Uzumaki like you should never have been tainted by a thing like the Kyuubi, by the hatred and cruelty and bloodshed of Konoha. You should be leading the whole of Shinobi. You’re the last Uzumaki, the last pure and beautiful thing in the world.” Takashi raked one shaking hand up through Naruto’s bangs and Naruto whimpered, horrified to feel that his hitai-ate was gone and that those bloody fingers could touch his skin. “I’m going to give you the world, Naruto, so that you can make it bright once more. Bright, and right.”

“H-h-how about, you could untie me? And then we can go back to Konoha and do that. We don’t need this, this, this tree or whatever, dattebayo.” Takashi smiled down at him and leaned in close.

“It’s such a filthy verbal tick you have. A filthy, un-right verbal tick, filthy whisker marks, filthy chakra. It’s all Konoha’s fault, you know. You’re going to be the Hokage of the new Konoha, the new Uzushio. I’ll untie you, just once I’ve removed the Kyuubi, and used this Tree to wipe the current Konoha from the map. After all, it’s the Chunin exams. All active Shinobi, and most inactive, and almost every civilian, they're all in town to watch the matches or to guard the village while there’s guests. I’ll never have a better chance than this. You will be the Hokage of a new world. And I will be right there by your side.” And then, Takashi leaned down right into Naruto’s face and shoved his tongue into Naruto’s mouth.

Naruto screeched, deep in his throat, and thrashed his entire body, but Takashi wouldn’t move. He just kept wiping his lips against Naruto’s own, and his tongue was big and wet against his own. Naruto snarled and bit down as hard as he could. Takashi jerked backwards with a scream, and shoved a hand over his mouth before slapping Naruto hard over the face.

“Little vixen,” he spat at Naruto as he stood. He glared down at him, sucking on his own bottom lip, as he walked around Naruto and stood between the stone table and the Aeorta. 

“Serves ya right, right?” Naruto said, before spitting a glob of blood at Takashi. It splattered across his face and the Shinobi bared his teeth and silently wiped it off on his sleeve.

“See? The Kyuubi, the village, it’s polluted you. I’ll protect you from that darkness, Naruto. I’ll pull it right out of you. Fuuin!” Takashi shouted and Naruto’s skin lit on fire. He wasn’t screaming, not this time, but he writhed against the ropes, yanking and twisting his limbs as every muscle jerked against the magnetic pull his entire chakra system was feeling towards the Aeorta. Takashi was above him, sweating with both palms hovering above Naruto. And then, then, he wasn’t. 

A flash of white to Naruto’s left knocked Takashi clear across the room, and Naruto gaped incredulously at the pure white fox standing above him, as tall as Kakashi-sensei, and foaming at the mouth with foxfire, holding a sealing brush in each of her six tails. 

“You dare?” growled the feminine voice of the fox. Her fuzzy lips did not move, but her bewhiskered jowls pulled back from her teeth, which cranked open around a ball of rapidly growing foxfire. “The Kyuubi-sama is not your human tool, and neither are you welcome in this sacred place. I am going to kill you for this transgression, if not today, then tomorrow, and if not then, then in my next life I will find you and rend the flesh from your bones.”

On the other side of the room, Takashi was slowly rising to his feet, rolling his shoulders and spitting out a few teeth onto the floor. “Yeah? Well, I think a monster like you will make a lovely fur coat for my Hokage, bitch.” And then Takashi had shunshined around and was waving a seal into existence over the fox. 

The white fox twisted on her hind legs, flipping three tails ups towards the seal, the brushes twisted intricately against each other and wrote into the air a new seal just beneath Takashi’s. The seals collided and fizzled out into a tiny patch of foxfire that quickly went out as the fox leapt through the flames and buried her teeth in Takashi’s arm. 

Takashi screamed and pulled backwards, stabbing a kunai towards the fox who reared backwards to dodge before twirling on her hind legs and smashing four of her six tails into Takashi’s side, sending Takashi hurtling into the Aeorta. Except, instead of hitting the Aeorta, Takashi bunched his legs against it and launched himself back towards the fox. The fox stepped back to the spot she had first appeared, at Naruto’s left, and a moment before Takashi made impact he saw all of the fox’s tails frantically scribbling something into the floorboards. 

Takashi was already too close, moving too fast by the time he saw the seal burst into life beneath the fox, and Naruto grinned imagining what it would do to him. The fox twirled backwards away from her creation, barking with laughter as she flipped head over tails. 

Takashi skidded into the seal and it was like gravity went opposite in a column. Takashi inhaled sharply as his feet were pulled upwards, and his kunai pouch fell up into the boughs of the Aeorta, leaving him with only the few kunai in his hand.

“You…you…” Takashi was clinging onto the edge of the table Naruto was strapped to, dangling from his fingertips as if it was the edge of a cliff.

“The term you’re looking for is Trickster,” said the white fox through gravelly laughter. Takashi’s teeth clashed together and he snarled through his nose. Then, Takashi looked down at his dangling hand, still holding three kunai in the slots between his fingers. The shinobi grinned and looked Naruto in the eye. Naruto heard the fox yelp just as Takashi threw the three kunai, slicing three of his restraints, and then let go and fell up into the tree as the Aeorta yanked Naruto’s body inwards.

Naruto’s left ankle was the only one still attached, and it twisted dangerously as his head was yanked all the way towards the Aeorta. Naruto shouted in fear and pain and thrust out his left arm to shield his face, only to freeze as his arm went straight through the glass and was covered in the light of the flowing chakra. His forehead was an inch away from going in too, before the strap on his ankle yanked harshly and his body jolted to a halt. 

“Oh no,” Naruto whispered, “oh no oh no oh no.” He yanked frantically, screaming behind his lips as the flex of his leg muscles made his ankle burn and scrape against the rope. Whatever he did, though, his arm did not move. The magnetic pull from the Aeorta slowly faded away, but wrapped around his arm almost completely over his shoulder was a perfect seal of glass. 

“It’s too late,” said the fox. She’d moved to sit upright across the room from him. The light inside the room was fading away to black, the chakra in the Aeorta going dim and red. “Your arm is already inside. The Aeorta will consume your chakra, and use it to destroy your home.” Naruto shook his head frantically and pulled harder than he’d ever imagined he could. He screeched towards the ceiling. The blood on his stomach from the sliced-in seal flowed heavy over his heaving sides.

“No, it can’t! There has to be something! Please, anything!” Naruto watched the fox and tried to beg with his eyes. The fox looked expressionless, frozen like snow, but her tails were drooping and curling around her paws. The fox looked away from him first.

“What would you give up to save your home?” she asked. “Would you give up, say, your left arm?” Naruto nodded and stopped his frantic tugs. His shoulder felt about ready to pop out of its socket. He couldn’t let Konoha be destroyed. He could never let all of those people die. It didn’t matter what it would take. This was all his fault. 

“Yes! Yes! Anything!” He was staring at the fox, who looked back up and met his eyes. He hadn’t known a fox could cry, before. 

The white fox grinned at him, all white teeth and tear-filled red eyes glinting in the fox fire light. It was the last thing Naruto saw before the fox lunged towards him, mouth gaping impossibly wide, and latched down on his left shoulder. 

Naruto screamed his lungs out, wrenching every muscle in his body away from the teeth and the light and the -oh Kami- fangs slicing into his skin- And then Naruto heard a crunching noise, barely louder than his screams, and Naruto’s whole left side felt wet and loose as his right cheek slapped against the slick floor beneath him. As soon as he hit the ground, the fox was hovering over him, and she was more red than white now, blood smeared all down her muzzle and chest. Naruto bit his lower lip and whined as his eyes started going blurry. The fox was saying something, meeting his eyes with concern, and Naruto felt fur pressing against the gaping hole on his left side. Fur where he should have an arm. The last thing Naruto saw before he passed out was seven matted-red tails curved protectively around his left shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takashi kisses Naruto in the creepy way.
> 
>  
> 
> Clarification on this chapter: Takashi used a knife to cut lines that follow the original seal on Naruto's stomach, making a scar in the shape of the Kyuubi seal. This scar is Takashi's way of making a second seal which keeps Naruto's chakra and the Kyuubi from escaping. He did this to keep Naruto immobile while extracting the Kyuubi. Once the Kyuubi was extracted, the seal's conditions would have been fulfilled and Naruto's own chakra would have been released. As it is, Yuki interrupted, so now Naruto is stuck as Rock Lee 2.0.


	6. Present

Ino was disturbed. Nothing was happening the way it was supposed to, all of the rules of the world seemed to have been broken at once, and Ino would be the first to admit that she didn’t know everything, that she had a lot left to understand about the world, but it was the reactions of everyone else that got to her. See, Yamanakas have to read people, yes, and not just with jutsus. Ino was learning, even as just a genin, how to look at somebody and see if they’re dangerous, or lying, or scared. Ino had never seen expressions like she’d seen today, and she’d extra never seen them from the grown-ups. She’d extra-super never seen them from Shikamaru.

 

Shikamaru almost never reacted to anything. But when Naruto fell – not even jumped, fell! – into the arena, Shikamaru had looked…Ino couldn’t begin to say. It was like he was seeing a monster. Except, Naruto wasn’t the monster, the monster was something just behind Naruto that Ino couldn’t see but Shikamaru, smarty-pants Shikamaru, could. It was like he looked at Naruto and saw what had happened to him. And that scared Ino more than anything. Because Shikamaru, she’d never seen him look at anyone like that before.

 

Naruto was supposed to be the cheerful idiot. He wore orange, and was dumb and got beaten by Sasuke-kun, and then he’d get up and laugh and do something silly and stupid. Only now, now he didn’t have his left arm. At all. That just didn’t happen! Sure, some super old retired shinobi might be missing a limb, but genin who were in the village didn’t just lose a limb without anybody noticing! And Ino was certain of that, that no one had noticed. The jounin senseis weren’t as subtle as they’d like to be. She couldn’t even blame them. Naruto looked horrible.

 

And then he’d demolished Hyuuga Neji.

 

When Naruto crawled up the side of the stadium to them Ino went from ‘disturbed’ to ‘horrified’. Naruto looked so beat up. His skin was pale and greasy and bloodstained, which made his weird whisker-marks jut out of his face. She’d thought they were ink, like Kiba’s fangs, but now she could see they were more…solid? Like scars, but not. They made him look feral. The way Naruto was hunched over, protecting the gaping chasm where his arm was supposed to be, that didn’t help. Also he wasn’t wearing any orange. That was almost the weirdest bit.

 

Naruto’s sensei, the tall skinny one that forehead-girl was always complaining about, went to him. He was treating Naruto like a stray dog, almost.

 

“Kakashi-sensei, water? Please?” said Naruto. His voice was so scratchy it hurt. When was even the last time he had a drink?

 

Ino didn’t hear much of what happened next, because Sakura finally got her wits back and stood up. Sasuke-kun stood up with her, and Ino knew she’d normally be jealous or whatever but this was so much more important that she’d kick Sasuke-kun’s ass right then and there to know what was going on. After all, a genin, one of her classmates, a fellow Konoha-nin, a blonde just like her, was missing an arm and no one seemed to know why. That was, by definition, a super bad sign.

 

“We should go find out what’s going on, right Sasuke-kun?” Sakura asked her teammate. Sasuke-kun just grunted, but he also followed Sakura when she pranced off. Ino followed them as well and pulled Chouji along with her. If something bad was going on, then she wasn’t going to let Chouji out of her sight!

 

“Stay close, Chouji, please?” she whispered. Chouji looked confused for a moment, before his expression cleared and he nodded. His hand tightened around hers and Ino relaxed a little. Then, she looked around for Shikamaru. She needed her team safe and close right now, dammit!

 

Shikamaru was already standing on the other side of Naruto. He was leaning against the banister and he looked more like his dad than Ino had ever seen before. It was like his shadow had gotten darker. His hands weren’t in his thinking pose, either, just clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles had gone bloodless and pale.

 

Sakura reached Naruto’s side and immediately screeched in his ear. “Naruto!” she yelled, “What was that? How did you learn to do all of that stuff? When did you get good at fighting? And why are you so gross? Oh, and yeah, where is your arm!?” Ino growled under her breath and she felt Chouji lean closer to her shoulder in support. When Sakura started yelling, Naruto jumped so bad that Ino was surprised he was still in the stadium. And the way he’d held his hand out towards forehead-girl, that was prep for a jutsu, and not a friendly one. According to her clan teachings this indicated that Naruto, for whatever reason, was unable to discern ally from threat at this point in time, which was a symptom of battle trauma. Ino looked over Sakura’s shoulder and eyed his shoulder. Trauma was putting the scarring lightly. It looked like somebody had cut it off with a kunai held backwards.

 

Forehead-girl, of course, didn’t even notice how close she came to triggering a defensive response from her own teammate. She was so annoying, she had the shinobi instincts of a slug even after months of being a genin. Ridiculous.

 

Naruto didn’t get to answer her before his sensei sent them off, reminding them all that Sasuke-kun’s match was starting soon. Ino had been so excited, but now… Hinata-chan was still sobbing, back at her seat, and Shino was sitting with her. Kiba had walked up with them and Sakura to see Naruto but as soon as team seven’s sensei had warned them off he’d scampered back to Hinata-chan like a puppy with its tail between its legs. And Shikamaru was still pulled taught like a bowstring.

 

Ino pulled on Chouji so they went and sat back down, but this time Ino shoved Chouji down into the seat right next to her. He could stop her easily, so Ino never hesitated to push him around in an emergency.

 

“Ino,” he said, “what have you figured out so far?” Ino bit her lip and leaned in to Chouji’s ear. His faith in her was kind, but also painful considering how little she had to tell him.

 

“No one knows what’s going on but Naruto, who isn’t talking. Whatever it was, it was very bad, and scared him a lot, and it definitely can’t have happened in Konoha. Someone would have noticed. And whatever it was, I don’t think it was fast. He looks like his whole month has been crappy. That means, whatever happened, somebody’s in very big trouble over what happened to Naruto. And,” Ino hesitated, “I don’t think that what happened was an accident. I think someone did that to Naruto. Someone probably not in Konoha.” Hopefully not in Konoha.

 

“Well reasoned.” Ino and Chouji both jumped as Shikamaru materialized next to them. The lazy jerk usually made some noise to announce himself but today of all days he decided to act like…oh. Actually, Ino kind of understood. Shikamaru wasn’t acting just as their childhood friend right now. He was acting like a shinobi. Like their team leader.

 

“Shikamaru,” she replied, “plan?” Shikamaru glanced at her and Ino tensed at the worried look in his eyes. He shook his head in the negative, then shrugged, and Ino and Chouji both relaxed. Ino nodded once and then stood up to sit on Chouji’s other side. That left Shikamaru to her seat, with Chouji surrounded by the both of them. They’d be able to see any threats coming to him, and he’d be nearby to aid either of them if needed. This was their usual formation for observational information gathering. And that was what Shikamaru wanted right now. Basically, it was time to, as Asuma-sensei put it, “hurry up and wait”.

 

Ino settled against Chouji and accepted the chip he handed her. Today of all days, she friggin’ deserved to cheat a little. Kunoichi needed calories anyways. Also, it was something remotely pleasant. Even seeing Sasuke-kun down in the arena wasn’t making her feel any better.

 

After all, Sasuke-kun was about to get his ass kicked. Or maybe even die. She didn’t have any illusions about that.

 

“Sasuke-kun” Sakura whispered from down the row. Her hands were laced together like she was praying. Past her, Naruto was sitting alone and watching Sasuke-kun as well. Except, he didn’t look worried, or encouraging, or even angry like back at the academy. He looked lost. And maybe a bit queasy. And, and worst of all, he looked like seeing Sasuke-kun was painful. Like Sasuke was some great, terrible thing Naruto wanted to either reach out and touch or never see again. Or maybe both. He looked almost betrayed.

 

Ino snapped her gaze away back down to the arena. It was a horrible thought. She couldn’t believe she’d even considered it. Sasuke would never do that to a comrade, right? Except, Ino realized she wasn’t sure. The boy down in the arena, her handsome Sasuke-kun, he was glaring at the freaky Suna-nin with red Sharingan eyes and gritted teeth. Only the eye color was different from how he usually looked at Naruto. At least, when he wasn’t beating Naruto’s ass into the dirt. When that happened, he always smirked. Ino had found it handsome on his pretty face.

 

Now, she felt kind of sick. What had Sasuke looked like when Naruto had first walked in? She’d only gotten a glimpse, but when he first saw Naruto he hadn’t looked worried, or scared, or even confused. He’d looked murderous.

 

Ino didn’t like that she wasn’t sure that Sasuke didn’t have something to do with all of this.

 

“Match, begin!”

 

Ino snapped her attention back to the arena as Sasuke and Gaara began their fight. Except, as frosting on the weird-day cake, Gaara wasn’t doing anything. Unless looking like you had a headache was a cool new battle-tactic. She almost figured it for a trick, to lure Sasuke in close, except then Sasuke punched Gaara’s lights out and, just like that, it was over. The monster, the unbeatable sand-defense Gaara of Suna, was one-hit KO’d.

 

“What the hell,” Ino breathed. Next to her, she felt Chouji nod and open another bag of chips. He must be really anxious to be doing that. And Asuma-sensei must be really busy to not come over and try to stop him. Ino actually leaned up to look over the back of her seat at the jounin-senseis and what she saw was nearly enough to make her leave and go home altogether out of sheer confusion. The jounin weren’t looking at Naruto anymore, oh no, they were looking down at Gaara and looking even more terrified than they had earlier when Naruto had shown up! It was like this unconscious Suna-nin was a bomb about to go off or something. Ino was half convinced by now this was some horrific genjutsu, and she pinched herself viciously on the thigh and looked over to Shikamaru. Shikamaru wasn’t looking at the arena or the jounin, no, he was looking at Naruto. He was looking at Naruto like he was seeing Naruto for the first time and it was breaking his heart. Ino’s own heart stuttered as she realized Shikamaru’s face wasn’t scrunched like that out of just worry or deep thoughts or nervousness. No, he was sad. He was terrified. Ino shot her eyes over to Naruto and checked him over visually for any (more) gaping wounds. Nothing stood out, but Shikamaru had obviously seen something.

 

“Humph!” came a voice from in front of her. Ino fell back to earth to the sight of forehead-girl standing nearby to her, smirking. “I knew Sasuke-kun would win. Since we’re on a team together, I’ve seen first hand just how amazing he is. I bet he’ll be super mad when I tell him you doubted him, Ino. After all, I’ve always had faith in Sasuke-kun!”

 

Ino gaped at her ex-friend. She could feel her clenched fists shaking. So, she launched herself upright and walked up to stand toe-to-toe with the shallow, cruel little girl playing kunoichi.

 

“That’s what you’re thinking about right now? Your stupid crush? Getting one over on me? After everything that’s happened in the last hour, that’s what you focus on? What the hell, forehead-girl?" Ino took a deep breath and hardened her expression. For years, she'd competed with this girl on the basis that there was something worth beating in her. This, though, this was beneath her in so many ways. Clenching her fists, Ino straightened her spine and stared her old friend down, eye to eye. "Fine. Take Sasuke, do whatever you want, but don’t you ever think I’ll respect you as a kunoichi after this. I will never again trust you to have my back, on the field or otherwise.”

 

Yamanakas learn from a young age about the legacy of the Akimichi and Nara clans. How their three families worked together and trusted each other for so many years, were friends out of mutual respect and admiration. A shinobi is always stronger as a team, and that’s why Ino’s legacy to fulfill was the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. If she’d shown up looking like Naruto, Shikamaru and Chouji would’ve shown up in exactly the same condition, because they’d never have let her be taken alone in the first place. They’d have noticed she was gone and done anything to help her. That, she realized now, was what scared her so much about Naruto. For a whole month, if she was right, he’d been in pain, in need of his comrades. And no one noticed. And even now, here, he was sitting alone.

 

Ino looked desperately past forehead-girl to Naruto. In the time since Sakura had shown up, Shikamaru had gone over to him and sat down. Ino was glad. Shikamaru was one of the two best friends anyone could ever hope for.

 

“You’re giving up on Sasuke-kun?" For a moment, the girl looked confused, almost hurt, but her expression quickly cleared into smug satisfaction. "I-I guess you've realized you don't have a chance with him, huh. I'm way beyond you. You're not a good kunoichi, you just fawn over your own hair and sub-par looks all day. Yeah, you’re just a jealous, incompetent little fangirl, Ino-pig. I don't need you to trust me or whatever, because I'm going to be so much better than you it won't even matter!”

 

Sakura’s face was red and angry beneath her cruel little grin. She’d shifted into an aggressive stance, sure, but with her hands on her hips and her balance pitched forward to taunt Ino, it was no fighting stance. Ino could topple her easily. Sakura never got into a fighting stance unless she was told to, not even now. It wasn’t instinctual for her. Ino looked long and deep into Sakura’s green eyes. Sakura looked like a jealous little fangirl. Ino let her body drain of tension.

 

“Whatever, Haruno.” With that, Ino took one step back towards Chouji and spat on the ground in front of Sakura’s perfectly pedicured feet.

*****

Naruto kept himself tucked in his corner as Sasuke stumbled back to his seat. The Jounin were all hovering in their clump, only now instead of talking they were staring in various states of distress towards Gaara, ranging from confused to horrified. Bushy-brow’s sensei was flat out growling, with bared teeth and everything, while tears streamed down his face from suddenly very scary-looking eyes pinned to the unmoving body of the Ichibi Jinchuuriki.

 

Only Kakashi-sensei was looking at Naruto. And boy, was he looking. Kakashi-sensei was looking at him like Naruto was bleeding from a gut wound, or growing a second head, or _like he was a problem_. Naruto huffed at Kaka-sensei and scratched his whisker marks, only so that he could break eye contact. Getting stared at was pretty much never a good thing, so far as he could tell.

 

On the ground next to Naruto someone flopped down and sat on his stump-side with a beleaguered sigh. Naruto twitched away, inexplicably anxious, and looked over to see Shikamaru sprawled out by him, looking out through the railings with a grimace.

 

“Haaa, nothing is going as expected, and I think it’s all your-“ Naruto’s stomach sank, but Shikamaru glanced at Naruto and abruptly cut himself off, rubbing the back of his head and looking down at his feet. “Troublesome…” he muttered. “You seem to know what’s going on better than most, Naruto. Who do you think will win the next match?” Shikamaru said this louder, and even looked Naruto in the eyes when he said it. Shikamaru actually looked kind of like he was trying to smile, but he was so obviously nervous that it reminded Naruto of some of the shopkeepers who were more scared of him than angry.

 

Naruto pouted and crossed his arm across his chest to clutch at his side. He shrugged with both shoulders, trying and failing to ignore the association. At the movement, Shikamaru’s eyes immediately went to his stump, and his face quickly turned a kind of greenish color. The change didn’t feel like a big improvement.

 

“How should I know?” Naruto mumbled. Shikamaru wrenched his eyes from Naruto’s stump and looked him in the eyes. Now, now his eyes were startled. Shikamaru’s nostrils flared when he took a series of deep breaths. Naruto was pretty sure that this was more energy than Shikamaru was used to putting into anything, and he was kind of worried now, for real, that Shikamaru would wear himself out before his match was even called.

 

“Naruto…” said Shikamaru, “why wasn’t your…amputation…treated by a medic-nin?” He kept glancing at Naruto’s stump with a growing frown. Naruto shrugged again to see if Shikamaru would turn green again. He didn’t, but his frown did get deeper, and the weirdo actually leaned in closer to watch his stump move. What, wondered Naruto, did he even expect to see? Naruto scrunched up one of his eyes and scoffed at Shikamaru.

 

“Cuz I couldn’t, duh.”

 

“That is not a reason as obvious to me as it is to you.” Shikamaru propped his chin up on his palm with his elbow planted on his own thigh, a single eyebrow raised imperiously.

 

“Well, yanno,” Naruto stuttered, waving his hand out to the side as he tried desperately to explain without focusing too closely on the image of sharp white fangs burned into his memory, “even if there was a med-nin around, it’s not like they’d help me. Like, like, you don’t treat an animal at the Hospital-ttebayo, yeah, so, um, I just toughed it out. I’m a great healer! When it’s me, I mean.” Naruto grinned at Shikamaru reflexively as the boy’s frown darkened, only for Shikamaru’s hold on his own chin to slip. The -seriously so lazy- guy let his forehead plop into his palm instead. Now that his face was buried in his own hand, he groaned for, like, a solid ten seconds.

 

With Shikamaru’s eyes no longer upon him, Naruto’s grin vanished. Shikamaru’s questions and proximity were making his stomach clench up and his tongue tie in knots as he tried to figure out what to say. Everything he said and did seemed to just be making Shikamaru feel worse, and Naruto hated that, even if he wasn’t surprised.

 

Eventually Shikamaru raised his face again. His eyes were weirdly red around the edges, and his lower lip was shaky. Shikamaru stared Naruto dead in the eye with a blank expression. Whatever distress had been there earlier was gone, and Naruto relaxed muscles he hadn’t noticed tensing up.

 

“I want to fight you today,” Shikamaru said, low and confident. “The only way for that to occur is for both of us to win every match and face each other in the final round. So, don’t lose to Uchiha-san, or else it’ll end up as a real drag.”

 

Naruto froze. There was no way he’d understood Shikamaru properly. He could feel his eyes go all round and startled. “You…wanna fight me? Me, not somebody else? You don’t think I’m gonna lose to Sasuke?”

 

Shikamaru hummed and reached a hand out towards Naruto. Naruto noticed all at once that, in his fluster over Shikamaru’s distress, his own hand had tentatively drifted closer in an aborted attempt at comfort. This was surprising, as Naruto generally avoided touching anyone unless he was looking to be screamed at. When Shikamaru’s hand reached his, Naruto couldn’t hold in a slight gasp. Their hands barely brushed at the edge, his index finger to Shikamaru’s own. The touch was soft enough on Naruto’s bloodied fingers to make his eyes water, and his gaze flinch away from Shikamaru’s to fix on the curve of their knuckles, their matching callouses and intertwined shadows.

 

“Call it a feeling I have, I guess.” Shikamaru’s tone was even softer than his touch. Naruto felt his eyes pulled upwards as though by gravity to stare at Shikamaru’s tiny, quirky little smile.

 

After a long moment, Shikamaru turned away to look back into the arena, and Naruto followed his line of sight. Shino had just jumped down, and Kankuro was in the process of joining him from the other side of the arena stands.

 

“Sasuke,” said Shikamaru, jerking his head in indication of someplace off to their left, “he’ll use some taijutsu and then try to hit you with a fire or lightning jutsu. He’s predictable. No one knows what you’re going to do, Naruto. If you want to win, then you will.”

 

Down in the arena, Shino and Kankuro were called to begin their match. Shino brought out his bugs, and Kankuro brought out his puppets. Shikamaru and Naruto silently watched as, in less than two minutes, wave after wave of puppet and insect collided into each other until Shino, overwhelmed, was knocked out by the Suna puppeteer.

 

“Yeah,” Shikamaru whispered, “It’s troublesome, but I think it might be time for us to move forward and become chunin. Change is supposed to be a good thing, right? Haa,” he sighed heavily before turning to Naruto and grinning, wider than Naruto had ever seen him smile. “It’s just too interesting to resist, even if it is troublesome.”

 

Naruto yanked his hand back against his chest, blood pounding in his ears. Shikamaru’s words were echoing in his head and making his heart speed up and his cheeks warm. They hurt like something piercing straight through him, made his eyes sting and his fist clench. But, at the same time, Naruto’s chest was expanding around the feeling of something like _light_ and _wanting to laugh_. A smile slowly began to curl over Naruto’s face in mirror to Shikamaru’s.

 

“Shikamaru,” called Asuma-sensei. Shikamaru’s smile twisted into a pout. With an air of great reluctance, Shikamaru stood up and slouched over, hands in pockets and bored expression. Naruto shoved his hand into his hair and grimaced, looking anywhere else and trying to tuck the hurt that made his throat and eyes burn back down where he could deal with it later. “It’s your match!” the sensei went on. “Now please, please, take this seriously, and tomorrow I’ll let you nap all you want.” Asuma-sensei was puffing desperately on his stub of a cigarette and alternating between dubiously eyeing Shikamaru and glancing inscrutably over at Naruto.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Shikamaru grumbled through a grumpy scowl. Yet, that scowl vanished as soon as he turned back towards Naruto, replaced with a smirk, and there was no hesitation when Shikamaru grabbed the railing next to Naruto and launched himself over into the arena. He left only the flicker of a shadow in his wake.


	7. Past

“-up…you must wake…please…little fox, you must wake up!”

Naruto’s eyes snapped open and he screamed helplessly at the pain. His entire left arm was burning, his shoulder felt like it had been chewed up and spat back out it was so bad. And to make it worse he was being jostled all over the place, up and down with wind whistling past his ears. Naruto’s right hand clenched down hard and he realized he was holding fur. 

“Kit, the human is gaining on us. I can run faster, but only if you hold on.” Naruto yelped and looked down. He was sprawled out over a field of white fur and he realized that the things around his waist, holding him to the back of the massive white fox, were tails. Tails matted with reddish brown gunk.

“Oh, kami,” Naruto moaned. That was his blood. His arm was… He couldn’t think about that now. “Who’s after us? What’s going on?” he yelled down at the fox, barely able to be heard even by himself with how crackly his voice was and how loud the wind was. They were running across that great field Takashi and he had taken a month to pass, only they were headed for a forest out in the distance. One of the many forests Takashi had warned him not to go near. 

“The human, the human from Kyuubi-sama’s tree, he’s regained consciousness and he’s after us. If I can get us to the forest, we’ll have a day or two before he can come in after us. It’s our only shot. I know it hurts, and I’m so sorry, but you must grab onto me and try to stay still!” Naruto, still swimming with confusion and pain, grit his teeth hard against the puke coming up into his mouth. Takashi…he was behind them. Everything hurt so bad. Everything was hot, and the sun was so bright on his red-hot skin, and everything smelled like blood. Naruto groaned and clenched his legs around the fox lady’s back and grabbed onto her shoulder with his right…his only arm. As soon as he did so, the world blurred around them.

The sky was a golden sheet above them, the only unmoving thing in the world, where beneath them the grasses did not so much as sway beneath the fox lady’s paws. Rather, they burned. Because there, tipping each snow white limb, was a flickering mantle of green flame.

Fox fire.

As the fox fire scorched the ground beneath them both, the two tails on Naruto’s waist released him. He immediately had to huddle down against his ride. The wind felt more like a sheet of fabric being pushed against him, now, like at any moment he would be ripped off her back and whisked away into the dusk air, like a wisp of smoke from one of his popped kage bunshin. 

And then they were flying.

The ground dropped out from beneath them, and fox lady wasn’t running anymore, no, she was leaping. Like a stone skidding across the surface of a lake, each time she dipped downwards her paws seemed to hit some invisible barrier and Naruto had to gasp against his painful panting at the beauty of the giant rings of fox fire that flared from her footprints each time she pushed off from thin air. The green flames rippled outwards from them like the sky was now an ocean, and they were running across its surface. 

The world was finally silent.

All he could hear was his own breath. His chest hurt, and every time he breathed in or out his left side just, just, cracked open. He hadn’t known pain could feel like this. It was like his arm was still being ripped off, like the hole was letting scraps of him leak out at the edges. 

“Thank you, kit.”

Naruto jerked slightly and hissed. Moving was the worst. Feeling anything was the absolute worst. His eyes watered and he, stupidly, noticed that as well as being tired and gouged out with painful throbs from his left side, he was also ridiculously thirsty. And now he was riding on top of the giant fox that had bit off his arm in the first place. 

“Hwwwweeer” he tried to ask. He was so confused! But his voice cracked and all he managed was that weird, reedy whine. 

“Oh, kit. Don’t worry for now, okay? We can touch down soon and I’ll get us to somewhere we can den for the night. You’ll feel better soon, I promise. Just let me handle everything, little fox. You’ve done so well.”

Naruto was tired. The sky was turning dark around them, and the green flames flickered out into the indigo at the edges of the world. He could almost hear the sheets of light chiming as they swayed in the air in front of the first few stars. There were so many questions he needed to ask, so much he needed to figure out, he didn’t even know if he could trust the fox…

His eyes drifted shut as several tails wound back around his waist.  
*****  
Everything was all floaty and tingly. 

Naruto groaned and tried to roll over. Something stopped him, though, and he just ended up shoving his face into something that smelled amazing. Like fresh dirt and moss. He squinted open one eye.

It was moss.

Turning his head felt like twisting open a rusty faucet. He could see more now, though, like the ceiling above him. The roof was woven together with massive tree roots, not crazy big, but like Konoha-big. A little bit of sunlight was filtering through from a gap in the roots on the other side of the mossy hollow from Naruto. The hole made a beam into the middle of the hollow that lit up the entire space like a lantern. Naruto was the only thing here that wasn’t moss or dirt or tree.

“Little fox!”

Naruto blinked and dazedly looked back to the entrance, where the light was being partially blocked by the massive, pointed white head of the lady fox. This was Naruto’s first time really seeing her up close. And jeez, she was really big. Naruto twitched and tried to squirm upright when the fox lady squirmed into the hollow - she took up, like, half of it - only for her to stick her head in his abdomen and start sniffing him frantically. All the movement made his left shoulder spasm like he had the worst cramp ever, and he felt like the floaty-tingly feeling was draining away a little. In its place, everything hurt. 

“H-hey! Whatcha think you’re doing?” he blurted. The fox lady just snorted and sat up slightly.

“I’m just checking that you’re healing alright, kit. I was worried, at first, but the gifts of our Kyuubi-sama are strong in you.” The lady fox was looking down at him softly, and her voice was gentle and pleased, but Naruto couldn’t wrap his head around how a giant fox was talking to him without moving her mouth or anything. Also, hadn’t she been pure white before?

“What’re the red marks?”

White fox lady sighed and tilted her head. The beam of light hit her red marks even better that way, and Naruto noticed even more of them. All down her throat her fur was spattered with tiny red nicks like a snowy owl’s stomach, not a lot but enough to make her neck and chest stick out a bit. Also, each of her tails had a crimson red tip. He was totally certain she hadn’t had that before.

“Some stains never go away, kit.” Fox lady laid down so her chin rested on her front paws. It put her head scarily close to Naruto’s face, and so also his neck. Her red eyes never flickered or twitched, just looked at him like he was the only thing in the world. It was beyond freaky, no one looked at Naruto that way ever. “Your blood will never leave me, just as my actions will never fade. My fur will always grow in patterned red, now, unless some even greater calamity befalls me which eclipses even these scars.” Naruto gulped and glanced down at his left shoulder. There was no blood, not anywhere. And where his arm should be was packed with the same spongy moss as beneath his head. 

“S-sorry dattebayo. But, anno, I don’t remember your name? Um, or where we are? What’s going on?” Naruto whined out the last of his questions and he could feel his neck heating up when it made the fox-lady snicker. Her teeth were really big. 

“I’m Yuki, and you’re Naruto. We’re in a den I keep near the edge of this forest in case of emergency. We can’t stay long, but I wanted to get some water and food into you before we try to put some distance between us and the Aorta. Well, between you and the human.”

“And-and hey! Why do you keep calling Takashi ‘the human’. I’m human too, you know.” Naruto scowled as furiously as he could up at Yuki. Lots of the villagers back home called him stuff that definitely wasn’t ‘human’. He never liked it. If he wasn’t so tired, he’d shake his fist at her!

“Hmm?” said Yuki. She was already turning around and plucking something from her leftmost tail into her forepaws. She laid the object at Naruto’s side. “Well, I suppose you’re human, but obviously you’re a fox, too. I didn’t want you to feel left out of our clan by bringing up your parentage. It’s not like you’re only half of a fox, you’re a whole fox, you’re just a whole human as well. And before any of that, you’re a kit under my protection. That makes you my little fox kit, now.” The thing she’d given Naruto was a sack, and she used her teeth to rip it open a little too easily. Naruto shivered as he remembered the last thing he’d seen those teeth tear apart like paper. Desperately looking for a distraction, he eyes the inside the sack. There was mostly just a bunch of berries and strips of meat, but there was also a weird squash-thing with a cork in the top. Yuki took the gourd and popped the cork out with her teeth. It looked more like a seed in her gaping maw until she spat it onto the ground. She brandished the gourd at Naruto. “Drink!”

Naruto frowned and shuffled lightly. His left shoulder hurt, badly, but not so much that he couldn’t move. He slowly lifted his right arm and actually sighed in relief. He’d been sort of scared that it’d be gone, too. As soon as he grabbed the water Yuki shoved her paws under his back and pushed him carefully upright, keeping the moss packed over his empty shoulder. 

“Hey!” he yelped. A bit of the water spilled out. “I can do it!”

“Ha!” Yuki barked. “And next I suppose you’ll carry me from here to Konoha on your back? Don’t be silly, kit. I’ve got you, so don’t worry for now, I’ve got you.” Yuki smelled like fur and living thing and ink. Naruto couldn’t believe he was doing this, after Takashi, after all of that, but he found himself kind of trusting Yuki. It was like, like she felt safe. She smelled like him, except not. And when she laughed, Naruto got what she was laughing at. With Takashi, he’d never really understood what the man was thinking. He understood even less, now. So, Naruto hefted the gourd-bottle and drank. 

He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was until the water hit his tongue. 

When he finished, Yuki laid him back down and turned away to do something with the sack of food that Naruto ignored. Instead, he just stared up at the roots holding up the packed dirt and moss from falling onto him.

Naruto slipped his right hand slowly down his torso. His chest was half skin, half moss, but mostly normal. His stomach was what felt strange. Before now, his stomach had always felt sort of numb when he wasn’t using any jutsus. Now, he felt like he had skin there for the first time. Except that skin felt, even without touching, like it was stitched together in a series of swirls that he hoped, hoped with all his might, were just his imagination tricking him. Only then his palm ran over grooved, rough skin. 

The scars were too deliberate and thick to be anything other than the Kyuubi seal, and Naruto clenched his eyes shut. In that moment, he wanted to be anywhere other than in this body, trapped with this thing that made people hate him and hurt him. The only good thing it had done for him before was keep him whole and healthy. Now it hadn’t even managed that! He’d never had a scar before. Of course his first set would be the mark of the monster in his belly. 

Naruto sighed. The Kyuubi wasn’t what caused the scars, not really. Just like Yuki wasn’t really who took away his arm. 

“It won’t heal.”

Naruto turned to look at Yuki. She had her back to him, and her seven white tails were lazily curling through the air like the branches of a snow-laden tree in a storm. 

“What? My arm? I mean, I kinda guessed that.”

“Heh,” she snorted. “The seal. I don’t often praise human work, but that blight is well designed for its prey. The only way to remove it, now, would be to remove Kyuubi-sama altogether. Even then, the chakra it would take, well, someone like you might manage it if it wasn’t on you in the first place, but certainly not him or I.” Naruto frowned and watched Yuki’s shoulders hunch up by her ears. He could only see it because her tails were drooping.

“Hey, Yuki? Why’s Takashi chasing us? Why’d he…I mean, why, what did he want with me? He wasn’t, yanno, wasn’t like that before-ttebayo!” After Naruto spoke, Yuki sighed and turned around. In her jaw was a dangling bowl-thing of mashed berries and a few strips of the meat. She carried it over to him, placed it delicately on the ground, and pushed it towards his right hand with her snout. 

“As a summons, I am not well versed in the evils of humans,” she said, then hesitated and curled up her tails around her front paws. “As a seven-tails, I’m cunning enough to understand what cannot be ignored. The human needs you to access the Aorta. He may want to destroy your entire world or he may want to save it. I do not care. No one should have that kind of power. The Kyuubi-sama, great and calamitous, exists because of what happens when a creature chooses godhood over life.” Yuki sighed, deep in her chest and laid down with her tails curling over Naruto’s bare belly. Her fur was unbelievably soft, and her warmth soothed the throbbing that was growing in his left side. “We can only stay for a few hours yet, kit. Then, we must break for the Fox Den. I need you to listen to me. The next few months will likely be hard, harder than anything a kit your age should go through. If I tell you to run, you must run. Look to the horizon and find the peak that is tinged green when the sunlight fades. Follow it until you reach the fungal grove, the mushrooms will show you which way gives life and which gives death. Follow those lights until you see the great stone where Kyuubi-sama rested his venerable nine tails. I will find you there, or I will die trying. And if the human finds you, you must not fight him. You must run.” Yuki breathed soft against Naruto’s hair. His hitai-ate was gone, and Naruto felt his eyes water when he realized it must have gotten left behind at the Kyuubi-tree. “You are a fox, little one, as much as you are a human. That seal, which binds Kyuubi-sama within you, it binds away your chakra as well. I cannot begin to guess how your chakra pathways will adapt, between your skin and your arm. I will buy you the time to find out.”

Naruto had so many questions. Nothing she was saying really made sense, or helped, and he hated how scared he felt at even just the suspicion that she might be leaving him. But, before he could protest, Yuki blew a hot gust of air out between her teeth into his face. The breath was the green of sunlight through leaves, and smelled like wildflowers and trees. Naruto was asleep in moments.


	8. Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto hasn't quite come to terms with his amputation, and so he thinks and says some not-nice stuff about himself. Obviously, he learns and grows, but just be aware that people with disabilities are NOT worthless, or deformed, or a failure because of their disability. Naruto's lost limb is his reality, now, and it will make his life harder in some ways, but by no means will it stop him. Also, Naruto is not an "inspiration" for "persevering despite his disability". He's an inspiration for persevering, period. Losing his arm is not going to define him, just like people in real life aren't defined by their disabilities. 
> 
> That said, some people in my story are going to think/say those things to Naruto, some more compassionately than others. They are wrong to do so, and Naruto and others will point that out, because ableism is not acceptable.

Naruto woke up when something rumbled off in the distance. 

The den was dark, and Yuki’s white fur glowed in the faint light of the moon. She was hovering over Naruto, head turned away from him, like a sentinel carved out of stone. Naruto took desperate comfort in how, a hairsbreadth from his stomach, Yuki’s furry white chest was rising and falling in a steady rhythm with Naruto’s own. She radiated heat, and Naruto shivered away from the cold behind him. In his sleepy, pained state all he wanted was to curl up into Yuki’s fluffy-looking fur and go back to sleep until none of this had ever happened. 

“He’s here.”

A sharp gasp rattled through the night air, and Naruto realized it had been him. Yuki was unmoving, staring out the entry way with glowing red eyes. Somewhere out there, Takashi was hunting him down. Naruto crept his fingers forward, reaching for Yuki. She might not like it if he grabbed her, but he had never been so scared before. Not with Mizuki, not with the demon brothers, not even with Zabuza and Haku. Naruto, laying on the cold, compact dirt, could almost feel the vibrations of the footfalls carrying Takashi to him.

He knew he wasn’t the smartest ninja ever, of course he knew that. And that first time out of Konoha with the demon brothers, he’d totally froze up. This was so much scarier than that he could barely think, and there wasn’t even any killing intent! The thing was, he was smart enough to know that, this time, it wasn’t his life at stake. It was Konoha. If Takashi got him back to the tree, then he’d destroy Konoha, and inside Konoha was everybody Naruto cared about.

Strength comes from protecting your precious people. 

Naruto startled when Yuki stood in one fluid stretch of her spine and tails. The seven tails each rippled like waves against a shore, and fuuinjutsu brushes seemingly appeared out of thin air in each tail’s grasp. A second rumble off in the distance made Naruto finally shove his hand into the dirt and push himself upright. 

“Yuki,” he whispered, “we gotta run, right? Towards the green mountain and the mushrooms you talked about.” Naruto stared over at the lady fox, and a sinking feeling dripped down into his stomach. Yuki wasn’t turning to face him. 

“You remember my directions, then. I’m glad,” she said. Her voice was flat, eerily so. Naruto clenched his fist and leaned forward. Something was wrong. Why weren’t they running?

“Yuki? I don’t understand, what’s happening?”

Yuki sighed. When she turned around, green wisps of light were steaming from between her teeth like smoke. “My kit. My little fox,” she said, rough like she had to wrench the words from her chest. “He’s stronger than I expected. The way is blocked. The only chance you have is to go alone. If I fight him, I may be able to create an opening for you. It’s our only option.” Yuki leaned down and in until her massive forehead was pressed, solid and radiating heat, against his own. Naruto found himself instinctively wrapping his arm up around her face and clinging to her ruff. “I will not lose another kit, Naruto. You will make it, and if I do not appear at the grand stone within three days of your arrival, then you will leave and find our kin.”

Naruto’s breath hitched, and the throbbing in his left shoulder deepened. His tears, tears spilling out without his permission, stupid tears, soaked into Yuki’s soft snowy fur. Dammit, crying was supposed to be for scaredy-cats, not shinobi like him! Although, after everything with Takashi, it was hard to feel confident about anything, especially his own ninja skills. 

“Yuki,” he whispered, voice rattling in his heaving chest. “This is my fault, isn’t it? Cuz I’m so stupid, and I’m a monster, and now you and Konoha-“

“Naruto,” Yuki interrupted. “Listen to me. You are no more monster than I am. Lessons learned the hard way are never fair, but they do run deep. Your trust is a gift. Kits deserve the chance to learn from their mistakes without this pain you now face. So, I will protect you until you can protect yourself, so that you can protect those you love. That is the lesson I learned the hard way.”

Naruto dug his fingers into Yuki’s fur and gasped for breath. “T-true strength comes from protecting yuh-your precious people.”

“Exactly, sweetheart,” Yuki crooned. “See? You’re not stupid at all. You’re much smarter than I was at your age, and you’re way super smarter than that arrogant human!”

Naruto’s little sobbing hiccups dissolved into embarrassing wet, snotty giggles that he tried to stifle against Yuki’s fur, but even in the dark he could tell that her forehead was getting shiny with damp, so he leaned back and wiped his nose across his forearm until the drippy feeling went away.

“I got your fur wet,” he said, half apologizing and half defending. Yuki only snorted and shook her head from side to side like the biggest dog ever. When she stilled, Yuki leaned back and raised one forepaw to hover beneath her chin and lolled her tongue out of her mouth.

“Do I look cool and punk-rock, now?” Naruto looked up at her head, where his snot had crystallized into a bunch of shiny spikes of white fur. He snorted and then had to laugh harder when a huge drip of snot came out. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes, Yuki, you’re the coolest fox ever!’ So thank you, Naruto. I always try to look my best for battle.” Naruto was laughing so hard he could barely stay upright, at this point, and when Yuki sucked her tongue back into her mouth he rubbed at his eyes to try and clean himself up even just a little. He didn’t want to look as silly as Yuki! “Good,” Yuki whispered.

“Huh?” Naruto scratched his left cheek and tilted his head up at Yuki, confused and feeling weirdly drained. It’d been a long time since he’d cried, and then he’d also laughed super hard. And also his left shoulder was tingling and stinging. 

Yuki sat up to her full height and passed Naruto a little messenger bag slung over her tail, which he silently slipped over his head and shoulder. For all of her ruffled fur and the way her ears scraped the dirt ceiling, she looked regal. She looked more like a shinobi than Naruto had ever dreamed was possible. 

“A fox always goes into battle smiling. Someday, when you’ve got a few more tails, you’ll understand why.”

Naruto froze and gaped up at Yuki. “Tails!?”

Yuki only laughed and snatched him into the coils of two of her own tails before leaping out the doorway into the black forest. 

Naruto didn’t get why he trusted Yuki so much. Except, he also sort of did. She was a lot like him. Or more like, she was everything Naruto wanted to be. It also helped that she was a fox instead of a human person. Instead of scaring him, like it probably would scare Sakura or Ino, Yuki’s fuzziness and sharp teeth made Naruto feel normal and safe for the first time in a long time. Yuki just made more sense than weirdos like Kakashi-sensei or even Jiji and Iruka-sensei. The thing he didn’t get was why he felt like that. Because he wasn’t a fox, no way, he was a human. A jinchuuriki, sure, but that just meant he was a person that happened to have a big fox sealed inside of him. 

Worrying about trusting Yuki was pretty stupid right now, anyways. Takashi was a bit more important to worry about, what with him being on his way to kidnap him and destroy Konoha. Also, being carried around in two of Yuki’s tails was pretty fun. He was, like, half convinced he was upside down right now. 

“Kitsune.”

Naruto tensed inside of Yuki’s embrace. Takashi sounded furious, cold and hateful in a way he’d never ever spoken to Naruto. He hadn’t heard someone speak like that, like their voice was killing-intent, since Orochimaru. 

Takashi’s next words echoed from every direction at once. Naruto twisted his head around this way and that, but no matter where he looked there was nothing but black trees against blacker shadows, all of them deadly still in the windless night. Naruto would bet anything Takashi had made some sort of clones to hide. Hide, and cut off any way they could run. “Hand him right over, and I’ll let you live. Don’t make me waste any more time on you.”

Naruto couldn’t take it anymore. “You bastard!” he screamed. “I won’t let you hurt her. This time you’re gonna have to fight both of us!” He kicked outward, careful not to jostle Yuki, and glared out in a random direction like he could see Takashi’s stupid face in the dark. 

“Where the fuck is your arm?” 

Naruto stopped. Of all the things for Takashi to say to him, all the sorrys and excuses, he asks about Naruto’s arm? What exactly did he expect when he tied Naruto down and carved up his stomach for some weird chakra ritual to bring about the end of the world? Takashi was such a moron! 

“Seriously?” he howled, “I only need one to punch your face in, yanno! I-di-ot!”

Rather than running away from Naruto’s fearsome growls and Yuki’s even more fearsome everything, Takashi started whining again. “I’m so sorry, Naruto,” he called from the dark to Yuki’s left. “I’ll be sure to fix that, make sure you’re perfect again for when we go home together. The power of the kyuubi will make our world flawless, make you the perfect Uzumaki. Just, just come here, right here to me, Naruto. You won’t be deformed for much longer, right.”

Deformed. The stump on Naruto’s left tingled as soon as he thought about it. He hadn’t even gotten to see it yet, so for all he knew Takashi was right. Maybe he was even uglier than before. And even if he decided not to care about looks, he really wasn’t sure how he was supposed to punch anybody’s face in without his left arm. Even just sitting up he’d felt off-balance. How was he supposed to be a shinobi with messed-up chakra and a missing limb? He’d already sucked, and now…

Naruto gritted his teeth and clenched his remaining fist. Takashi wanted to destroy Konoha. Even if Naruto was worthless, now, even if he was a failure, he was protecting people who were precious to him! His goal, to become a great ninja, to live by his ninja code, didn’t mean he got to give up just because of some measly wound. There was always a way to keep moving forward. Giving up Konoha to Takashi wasn’t even on the table. He’d die first.

Like Haku.

“You won’t touch him again, human filth. This is not your world.” Yuki’s growled threat interrupted Naruto’s thoughts, and he snapped himself back into the present battle with a little gasp. Now was not the time for memories. Now was the time for kicking ass!

“Oh, right.” Takashi said it in the same tone Naruto’d heard others say ‘oh, please’. That tone being a super sarcastic one. “You’re surrounded. I’ve trapped you like the animal you are. Naruto is mine.”

“Huh,” she replied. “Ballsy of you,” Yuki drew back her tails and Naruto with them, “to try and outsmart a fox,” and threw him spinning upwards on green flame. Naruto was flying. Heart-in-throat, stomach-in-toes flying. Going so fast shouldn’t be possible! He was screaming his lungs out, flung at eye-watering speeds straight up and over the forest canopy with a funnel of green fox-fire rocketing him forward. With just two tails, Yuki had managed to send him shooting out and away from the battle field. Desperately, he flailed his arms, rotating to try and search the ground beneath him for any sort of landmark, but everything rushed past him like a midnight-green river. Even just trying to watch made him so dizzy he wanted to puke his guts out. Still, he caught a glimpse, more than enough, and saw that Yuki and Takashi were already fading into the distance. She was too far away for him to help her. 

The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Takashi screaming his name, not nearly loud enough to drown out Yuki’s piercing cackles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok. So. I cross-post on fanfiction.net under the same username, and wow it's a different community and not in a good way. I get so many comments telling me that they "don't like yaoi" or that putting in romance will ruin my story or even just flat out telling me Shikamaru should be a girl so that it's a straight story. I'M A FUCKING LESBIAN AND I DO NOT GIVE A SINGLE FUCK ABOUT WRITING YET ANOTHER STRAIGHT STORY FOR PEOPLE I DO NOT RELATE TO AT ALL. Some asshole even lumped in "underage homosexuality" with "self-mutilation" and "retardation" (which is such a horrible word to use!) while talking shit about my Sasuke fic, like wow. Get a life, write something, go outside and walk through a ditch in the dark while crying, make a connection with another human being, become an amateur photographer, just do something to chill out and generate an original thought. Of course, I'd never say that to him directly because internet weirdos are terrifying and incomprehensible void beasts. Anyways, I'm really super glad I don't post Harriet the Flame on ffnet, because I do not want that kind of shit being said about my favorite work. I mean, ffnet won't even let you delete comments or respond to them, it's such a shitty site compared to AO3. No wonder rudeness is allowed to propagate itself, if authors have next to no tools. 
> 
> And also, ok, fair, I should probably write some longer chapters, but also so many people on ffnet are like "update soon!" or "longer chapters!" like fuck off! I'm a full-time student! I get you're trying to be nice but maybe learn how to talk to people with a little more nuance. 
> 
> Sorry, jeez, I just wanted to thank all of my commentors here on AO3. I get such precise feedback about what I've done well and what I should work on, in terms of the structure of my stories, characterization, setting, etc. I mean I can appreciate good criticism, I'm not just bitching because ffnet reviewers are "mean" or whatever, that's not even really true. They're just kind of thoughtless. Like my fics are a product they're consuming. Ffnet doesn't feel like a community like here on AO3 does. So, uh, yeah. I really love my readers on this site and I can't thank you all enough. 
> 
> I'll try to write longer chapters, maybe, depending on how busy my new classes keep me. Because, when I post writing on AO3 I do feel like I get feedback that helps me in becoming a better writer. 
> 
> Also you guys appreciate some gay shenanigans unlike those bores on ffnet.
> 
> Postscript: I've gotten so many lovely notes in response to this rant. Thank you all. I didn't realize how much I needed to hear your kind words until I read them. I'm going to leave this rant up because it feels very genuine to my goals writing this story, and I think it would be disingenuous to delete it at this point. Let's just say, the above rant is a baseline, and with every chapter I write after it, I grow stronger!


	9. Present

Shikamaru let the pull of the Earth carry him down to the arena ground. The impact may hurt, but he needed to be underestimated. Without time for planning, he’d need every advantage he could get. So, lazily, carelessly, he collided with the ground and let the small stones scrape him slightly. He may look injured, may look incompetent, but he was not. He was a walking misconception, today, even to himself.

Just like Naruto.

“Uuugh,” he groaned, hoisting himself upright. The Suna kunoichi was across from him with her massive fan, glaring at him over a sneer of disgust. Perfect.

Idly, Shikamaru noted that her hair was much less vibrant than Naruto’s, almost greyish pitted against his sunshine blonde. 

‘Focus!’ he snapped at himself. On the outside, he stayed bored and floppy, even as he pulled himself upright. Inside, he snarled at himself. He needed to win this, and he needed to win with as many advantages as possible for his next match.

Then, he could face Naruto.

It took everything Shikamaru had not to let his rage and killing intent seep out of his eyes towards his opponent. This much emotion was so unbelievably foreign to him that he half expected something black and viscous to ooze out of his ears and take his motivation with it, whispering as it left that a lazy bum like him was a poor host for such a strong suggestion. Worse than a genjutsu, a shadow had been cast into him from the moment Naruto entered the stadium. 

But Nara must not fear shadows. They are shadows. And so Shikamaru saw Naruto and did not look away. 

Now, standing in the arena and letting out a deep sigh, Shikamaru looked at the Suna-nin and saw something different. Like through his newfound Naruto-filter she became something more important. Like everything became more important. There, the way she twitched her foot, was a tell or a fake out or an old injury or inconclusive data to add to the arch of her shoulders the glimmer of her pupils dilating the grip she held on her fan and all of these things he saw were weapons for him and for her. She wasn’t a troublesome test, or even an obstacle to remove on his way to Naruto. She was, in as impersonal a way as possible, the only thing that mattered right now, because Shikamaru had to reach Naruto wherever he’d been lost to, and in this mind-shattering goal of his the Suna-nin was more than an obstacle, she was an enemy.

He’d never wanted to beat someone so badly. And he was certain that this was only the beginning. 

Part of Shikamaru, a part that was going largely ignored as his tactical mind took over, recognized that in some way this sort of purposeful action was something he’d been seeking for a long time. Whatever this was, he liked it. It wasn’t boring.

And, it brought him closer to his father. To Asuma-sensei. And to Naruto.

“You ready, Nara, or are you gonna doze off?” the proctor, Genma, drawled. Shikamaru shrugged and ignored the questioning tilt of Genma’s eyebrow. Figured that a special jounin would notice something was off with him. But, since Shikamaru didn’t acknowledge it, Genma would have to leave it alone without blowing his cover. 

“Troublesome…” he whined only half-facetiously. Genma was already looking away and the Suna-nin was glaring at him and opening her fan. The match would start soon, ready or not. And so Shikamaru reached down and slipped off his shoes. With so little chakra, he’d need to get creative. 

“Are you ever going to take this seriously?” shouted the enemy. She looked furious. He could use that. Dangling his shoes from two fingers, Shikamaru reached up the other hand to scratch his nose. The movement would, hopefully, distract her from his intention to leap backwards into the shadows in 3…2…1…

“Match, start!”

The wind whistled off of the enemy’s fan but Shikamaru was already 15, 20 meters back, in the shelter of the arena wall and the shadows it cast. His world now. 

Except, the damn girl was too far away. 

Shikamaru bent his knees just in time to gasp and brace against the slicing bite of wind from the enemy’s wind-release. There was so much that it was ridiculous. Shikamaru snorted dust out of his nose and wrenched one eye open to peer out at the enemy. 

She was standing still, almost posing with her fan as she watched the fruit of her labors blast against Shikamaru’s guard. She was smirking.

Ah. Now Shikamaru knew what to do. 

It would be a real drag, but if he wanted to reach Naruto, then he’d be a real bastard to balk at something like that. There was a choice to be made here. 

The winds died down and the enemy looked out at him with a victorious baring of teeth. She was smug. Despite not landing a hit.

“You’ve given up already, haven’t you, you coward. You haven’t made a single move against me. Are you going to forfeit, like your other weak comrades?”

Shikamaru crouched down, staring unblinking at the enemy. Staring, until he closed his eyes and planted his fingers together, tip to tip, thumb to thumb. 

He knew how to defeat this enemy. But that didn’t mean he knew how to win. Checkmate, today, was not avoiding effort, or defeating this enemy. It wasn’t even becoming a chunin. All of those things would be for nothing if he didn’t reach Naruto.

He’d wanted something interesting. Stupid of him, to wish for something like that. Being bored wouldn’t hurt him in the way caring about someone was about to hurt him.

Shikamaru thought of Naruto, up there somewhere in the stands. Naruto’d be watching him right now. Did he understand what Shikamaru was doing? Was he worried for him? Was he too tired and beat-up to care, right now?

No. Naruto, whatever happened, would never stop caring about a friend.

Funny how Shikamaru had never noticed that before, too busy looking away from Naruto. 

Just like everyone else apparently. 

Never again. 

Shikamaru wanted to be a chunin. He wanted to be a Nara. He wanted to be a man worthy of standing by Naruto’s side!

Shikamaru wrenched his fingertips apart and threw himself forward out of the shadows. His shoes, he abandoned on the dirt. His toes dug into the dirt as he ran through the sunlight straight at his enemy. He hadn’t run barefoot…ever.

‘I hope he’s watching,’ Shikamaru thought with a tiny grin. ‘I hope they’re all watching me do something dumb and difficult, all to reach the most difficult person of them all! Does he see, that with this strategy, it’s him I’m thinking of for inspiration? Does he see me seeing him?’

The enemy, his enemy, looked wide-eyed at him, a crucial pause in which Shikamaru whipped his arm around and threw a kunai straight towards her fan. As he expected, she jumped back and, prompted by his initial push, began to retreat across the arena. Of course, in the meantime, she also launched a wind-release at him in the power and distance range to shatter his bones.

Shikamaru smirked from the shadows beneath the wall, watching his left shoe fly up into the air, thrown completely out of the arena by the attack. The replacement jutsu really was just nifty. And a low chakra-load, too, at such close range. That’s why they taught it to academy students. 

He was still winded though, wow, he’d never done that so fast before. His afternoon nap was going to last for days, after this ridiculousness.

His enemy was now in position, near to the divot in the ground Naruto had cast with his strange air-pulse jutsu. She was up on her toes, ready to jump back at the slightest provocation. Her eyes were scanning him and periodically scrunching and unscrunching. Whatever plans were running behind those eyes, he could not rule anything out. Failure had a higher price today than any of them knew.

Shikamaru couldn’t wait to ask Naruto what that had been. He couldn’t wait to ask Naruto about anything and everything. For any price.

The fan tilted a scant few degrees in his enemy’s hand. Shikamaru immediately had his remaining shoe scooped into his hand as he ran for cover behind one of the few trees in the arena. The small tree just barely stood in the boundary of the shadows. Behind it, Shikamaru frantically wrenched off his jacket. He expected the jutsu would emerge any second now, and he had to be ready. Barely in time, Shikamaru tied off a kunai to the ends of his shirt and let it go just as the blast of a wind-release collided with his tree. He let the payload go, and threw himself, not behind shelter, but into the dust cloud and wind blades of his enemy’s technique.

The wind sliced gashes into his exposed arms, held defensively to keep his core protected. He had seconds, maybe, before visibility returned. It hurt. It hurt like nothing Shikamaru had felt before. But, even with the blood, and the wind, and the -fucking troublesome- biting dust everywhere he made it to the next tree and hid himself before the cloud dissipated. 

In the tree he’d left behind, the green of his shirt could be seen just glimpsing out of the branches, high enough that the form of the object was obscured and would direct his enemy’s sight upwards, and stuck fast to the trunk of the tree by the kunai. To any non-sensor shinobi at a distance and without a doujutsu, his location would seem obvious. Like he’d climbed the tree rather than moving at all.

“I can see you, coward. Hiding like a cat up a tree, huh? I guess leaf-nin are all the same, tree-hugging pansies. You’re really somethin’ else, though. I figured you’d have at least thrown a shadow at me by now. Or are you too lazy to face me head on and lose?”

Shikamaru blankly watched from his spot tucked into the roots of his new tree. The crowd shouldn’t be able to see him, and neither, apparently, did his enemy. If she did, and was tricking him, he had a plan for that. 

He didn’t need it.

His enemy crouched down behind her fan and prepared not only a wind jutsu, but a clone to appear to be using it. Bait for her trap.

Bait for his trap. 

The circle indented by Naruto was in nearly the dead center of the arena. Shino and the puppet guy’s fight hadn’t so much as scuffed it. The indent was rough, and had no shadow of its own, but it was also perfectly circular. Not just round, perfect. 

A perfect target when he threw his shoe into the circle and let it fall, hidden in the divot, with a silent puff that his enemy failed to notice as she stared up at the tree she thought he was in.

The audience gasped, likely at the reveal of his position, but Temari was simultaneously releasing her clone, a move that would elicit the exact same response, and so she remained ignorant of her fate. Shikamaru put his hands together with care he hadn’t shown since before the academy, trying to put as little chakra as possible into his second replacement jutsu. Even just with these two, he’d be down nearly a quarter of his chakra reserves.

Standing in the center of the circle, behind his enemy, made it all worth it. 

His enemy spun around, her clone, too, turning to attack him, but it was too late. Shadow capture was complete. And the clone was right next to his captured prey. 

Shikamaru gripped his hands around an imaginary fan and slammed it into the air to his left. His enemy did the same, and the clone popped into a puff of smoke. As soon as it left, Shikamaru ran forward, kunai out, and held it against his enemy’s throat. 

Her hand hovered near his chest. The empty fist was harmless. 

“Surrender,” he growled, digging the kunai into her throat. The faster she gave in, the more chakra he’d have for later. A bead of blood ran down the blade and Shikamaru met his enemy eye to eye for the first time.

She looked terrified. 

Naruto would care, that she was scared. He’d talk to her, convince her somehow to peacefully give in, or maybe he’d just knock her out and be done with it.

Shikamaru knew he wasn’t actually planning to kill her or maim her, so he didn’t really care. He was more worried what his loved ones would think. Up there in the stands, they were watching him, and this was the first time Shikamaru had shown violence like this. Effort like this, even. 

Everything was changing all around him. And even if it didn’t go perfectly, it was all too interesting to resist. 

And even if he wasn’t so great at hard work, or leadership, or anything other than napping, really, there was one thing he knew he was the best at. Believing in his friends came so naturally to him it was like having a shadow. He had to believe that they would still know him, even if he did, finally, grow up a little.

He still knew Naruto after all.

His enemy didn’t look scared, anymore, as she stared him down. Mere seconds had passed, but already she had relaxed to stare thoughtfully at his face. Shikamaru flushed as he realized his thoughts about Naruto had probably shown on his face in some way. Now that was a stupid mistake. 

The kunoichi sighed. “My brothers need me, anyways.” Without being able to turn her head, she shifted her eyes towards Genma. “I surrender!” she called, loud and true. 

The stadium erupted, Genma’s hand fell, and Shikamaru let his enemy go free. 

He and she both stepped back in unison, despite the lack of shadow. Shikamaru found himself slumping and looking down to warily assess the slicing wounds all up and down his arms. He suspected he had one on his cheek, as well, from the wet sting.

“I underestimated you,” called the Suna-nin. Shikamaru nodded.

“I didn’t,” he replied. He didn’t know which one of them he was referring to. He hoped she did, because now she was smiling.

“Good.”


	10. Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto walks and thinks.
> 
> Not a lot happens, but Naruto changed a lot anyways.
> 
> Sometimes growing up happens really slowly, and sometimes it happens in a flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an odd-duck chapter of exposition and internal monologue. It's a lot of tell and not show.
> 
> Whoops?
> 
> I kind of like it anyways, so I'm calling it done.

For the second time in as many days, Naruto woke up laying in dirt. He was for real starting to get pretty sick of dirt! This time was even worse, because he was face down and, somehow, he felt like he’d gotten a bunch of dirt up his nose. He snorted, hard.

Now he was laying in dirt and snot. Yaaaay.

Naruto sat up with a huff and squinted around at his surroundings. There was a dark patch of black that streaked away from him and the place he’d crashed, the only interruption to an odd, gentle green glow around him. He couldn’t see it that well, but he figured the dark streak was some sort of divot leading into the crater from him landing. 

That was actually pretty cool, that he’d survived falling out of the sky in his sleep. 

At the edges of the crater, massive trees stretched up into the dark, black and shadowed. Shadowed, only because there was light to keep Naruto’s eyes from getting used to the dark. So many lights, actually, that Naruto was totally surrounded by them.

Naruto started to wriggle his way up out of the dirt towards those lights only to crash forward onto his chin with a yelp. He’d tried to balance on his left arm. Naruto groaned and hung his head. His shoulder and chest were aching so much, he’d never realized pain could last for so long. Maybe he could just stay here and breathe for a little while…

No! Naruto threw his head back upwards and clenched his remaining fist. Yuki was waiting for him at the Kyuubi-rock or whatever! So, Naruto had to keep going. He leaned his weight to the right, ignoring how his ribs shifted painfully under his skin, and shoved upwards hard enough that he managed to get his feet under him and his right hand clenched into the soft dirt at the rim of his crater. Then, with a little hop and a painful twinge of his right collarbone, he sort of diagonally hoisted himself up out of the dirt and onto the tree roots that held the forest floor together. He even landed standing! Naruto grinned and looked down at his right arm, just visible in the mushroom-glow. Yeah, righty was looking more reliable by the minute!

Now that Naruto was free, he looked around more closely and scratched the back of his head. Some dirt fell out of his hair. Naruto grimaced and scrubbed his hand through all the hair he could reach. A lot more dirt came out. Naruto gave up and huffed. Then, Naruto’s eyes widened and he leaned in towards the nearest light in front of him in spellbound awe.

The tree nearest to Naruto had a huge clump of the green-glow at about level with his head, and so also level with his breath. As soon as his air blew over the clump of lights, the green glow bloomed outwards. A scattering of green puffs of light detached from the tree and floated away to Naruto’s left like dandelion seeds on a non-existent breeze.

“Eh?” he murmured. Now that he’d seen the green lights closer up, he realized in a click that, somehow, the patches of light were fox-fire, just like from the Aeorta and Yuki. They’d popped out from the mushrooms like sparks from a flame, except for how mushrooms weren’t usually made of fire as far as Naruto knew. 

Yet, they were mushrooms! Naruto could see, in the light of the fox-fire, every one of the little folds and ridges and caps of flesh that acted as shelter to the green light. The fox-fire was, somehow, not coming from foxes. Or, well, from fox-shaped chakra.

Did that mean these mushrooms were, like, chakra mushrooms?

He probably shouldn’t eat any, just in case. 

Something tapped against Naruto’s back and he whipped around, fist raised. Only, as soon as he spun, whatever it was bumped into his lower back yet again, moving as fast as he was. So Naruto spun once more, ready to punch out at whatever was there, only to once again meet nothing but thin air. Naruto stilled, and after a moment nothing more happened. 

Now more on edge than ever, Naruto pressed his back up against a tree, only to yelp when something large and lumpy dug into his back. He reached around and then sagged when his fingers met the backpack Yuki had given him.

Naruto snorted. His cheeks pulled up into a smile. Then, he burst into loud, raucous laughter, helpless and breathless. He’d just tried to attack his own backpack! That was so silly, and all that, but also what a freaking relief! There wasn’t anything behind him but his own imagination. 

While laughing, Naruto had clenched his eyes shut, so when he opened them he was surprised anew by how the clearing had changed in mere moments. All around him, the fox-fire sparks had released their holds on the flesh of their mushrooms, and all drifted away in a direction off to Naruto’s left yet again. 

Some of the sparks faded away in the dark, flickering out as they floated. But a few of the sparks lived to reach the ground where they immediately sprouted.

Every time a spark touched soil, a patch of grasses and flowers grew up to ankle-height in moments, all of the buds blooming so that their faces tilted in the direction the sparks flew. Only, the stems and leaves to Naruto’s right, they faded just as quickly, going brown and dry until they crumbled into dirt and only the left-facing plants remained.

“The way that gives life,” Naruto whispered. Yuki had told him exactly which direction to go to find her! And, since it was fox-fire, Naruto was willing to bet that Takashi would get burned if he tried to follow. Naruto beamed at the thought. Maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to do this.

A maybe was plenty to be worth trying for!

Naruto walked to the edge of the blooming flowers, staring down at them between his dirty shins. They were still glowing, a little, green like sunlight in Konoha’s forests. They made Naruto feel less scared, to be here in the dark. Fox-fire, every time he’d met it, always seemed to welcome him. Everything about it just seemed like it was saying “you’re home!” and “you can do it!”

Ahead of Naruto stretched nothing but black and unknown. He’d be lost in an instant if it was just him. Except, Yuki was guiding him even now. She’d made sure from the start that he’d know where to go.

So, Naruto reached out to the nearest tree and drifted a hand down the green glow that was just starting to light up the longer he stood near. Under his palm sparks flew forward ahead of him, and flowers immediately began to bloom in a trail leading off forward. The trees next to where the flowers grew also began to glow, like the mushrooms were just waking up from a nap.

Naruto smiled a quick thanks to the tree next to him and started forward.  
*****  
The first time Naruto ran out of water, he was furious with himself every time he cried.

Like, he was already super thirsty! So why did his stupid body keep forcing him to let out even more water for no reason? It didn’t help and he hated it! He wasn’t supposed to cry, shinobi weren’t supposed to give in to failure and feel sad and cry over things, they were supposed to fix things. Shinobi were supposed to, to, to be strong and silent and stuff and endure like a super cool person should. 

Shinobi weren’t supposed to be helpless. 

Naruto was, though. Because no matter how much he looked, or sniffed, or ran, or rationed, he was out of water and there wasn’t any water around him. No puddles, no streams, no rain, nothing. He couldn’t do anything. 

This was his second day without water and he felt really, really bad. So bad that he could feel the seal on his stomach and the tingle of his regenerating-chakra doing stuff to his stomach and throat, deep inside him where he couldn’t see. 

The tingling had been going on all day. He’d been pleased in the morning, because, well, he figured that the Kyuubi was helping him by healing him somehow.

Now, though, while Naruto sat in the dark and tried to curl up for sleep, dark and weird thoughts kept getting stuck in his head like “what if the Kyuubi’s taking water from inside my body?” and “what if the Kyuubi is using how thirsty I am to kill me and escape?” and even though he knew that was stupid and pointless he just kept thinking it until his breath got sharper and sharper.

So, when Naruto heard something coming from all around him, it made a lot of sense that he sat bolt upright, got a bit dizzy, and bared his teeth to snarl at whatever invisible thing was making the weird noise.

Then, something fell on his nose.

High above his head in the unchanging dark, a sort of crackling noise was his only warning before rain began pounding down onto him, and woke up every single mushroom in sight in the process. Every tree was emitting sunlight, now, and so Naruto was able to look up and blink water out of his eyes just long enough to see - dark and shadowed but still there! – clouds. Clouds absolutely dumping water down over him.

Naruto gaped. This couldn’t be real, after all, it was just too perfect. Yet, he could feel it. And, with his mouth open, he could taste it. Nothing but a drop, but that drop of water was even more delicious than Ichiraku ramen in that moment. Jumping up, he wrenched open his bag and opened up every container-like thing he could possibly find, including his backpack, and set them out beneath the sky-wide waterfall. He could see everything clearly in the light of the mushrooms reacting to the rain, and so not only did he tilt his head back with his mouth open wide, but he also began to frantically scrub at his skin with his scraggly fingernails. When he wasn’t drinking whatever water fell onto his tongue, Naruto spent the rest of the evening watching rivulets of dirt rinse down his calves and onto the flowers blooming beneath him.  
*****  
The first time Naruto tried to eat one of the mushrooms, he threw up.

After that, he stuck with the little grasses that sprouted from the fox-fire. The grasses that he recognized.

Even if they tasted gross.  
*****  
The first time Naruto tried to create a shadow clone, nothing happened. 

And the next and the next and the next and the next...

He could feel his chakra beneath his skin, beating in time with his fingers going through handsigns he hadn't needed since the night he learned his favorite jutsu from the forbidden scroll. At first, he hoped that maybe it just wasn't working because he was only using one hand to make the signs. But, as he tried over and over, feeling how his chakra stayed bound within him, hearing Takashi and Yuki's warnings echo in his head, his hopes faded. The more times he tried, the harder he pushed, the more the scars on his stomach burned.

When he got home, Naruto promised to himself, he'd pay Rock Lee a visit in the hospital. Even if he had to sneak through a window in the dead of night to get past the nurses.   
*****  
The first time Naruto considered following the dark sides of the mushrooms instead of the fox-fire side, he’d been going for nearly a month. 

What did it even mean, that everything going that way died?

Would Naruto die if he went that way?

What made the direction he was going special, and the way back special in the opposite way?

Naruto had figured, at first, that the fox-fire went in the direction of “life,” as Yuki put it, because fox-fire was like sunlight and chakra and good-things all rolled into one. They certainly felt like that to him, all warm and bright and happy.

Except, it was the fox-fire that made the dead-plants, too. No matter how far Naruto walked through the woods, the same sized clumps of blooming flowers would wither and die. If he was getting further away from something that caused death, then wouldn’t that have stopped?

So yeah, Naruto wondered a lot about what he was walking away from. He also wondered a lot why he felt just as warm and happy to feel the fox-fire of the dead plants as he did the living ones.

They all felt like fox-fire to him.

They all felt like home.  
*****  
The first time Naruto ever cried in relief, he’d just set foot on a valley of stone, and he was looking out on nine streams that all branched from a central spring. Just like the nine tails of a fox. 

After over a month, after running out of water over and over until he savored every drop like it was Ichiraku ramen, after eating anything remotely safe and still feeling his ribs get more and more obvious, he’d made it.

Seeing a blue sky felt surreal, now. Like waking up in the morning after a super-duper long dream. Or like the snow melting after winter. The stone beneath the blue sky was such a light grey, almost white a the edges of the streams, that it was nearly blinding! Naruto oddly found himself wishing for some shadows, if only to make for some contrast.

Yeah, Naruto nodded to himself. See, Shikamaru would be perfect right now. 

Giggling, Naruto took a few steps forward before plopping down onto the rock. He’d had waaaay too much time to think while he was walking. It was a miracle he hadn’t started talking to himself like a loon! But, he hadn’t thought a lot about his friends in Konoha. Mostly, he thought about missing things like food, or water, or blankets, or fresh clothes. He’d missed company a lot, but it was kind of familiar. As a kid before the academy he’d go months without speaking to another human. So, he’d missed company in a sort of, um, nonspecific way? Like, he’d have like someone to talk to, but he still felt just as gross and desperate and sad-scared at the idea of other humans that he did in Konoha, so the loneliness never really felt different than it felt any other time in Naruto’s life.

Honestly, he’d thought the most about Yuki. About how he couldn’t wait to get back to her. About how proud she’d be that he made it. He’d imagined arriving at some hazy, imagined spot and seeing Yuki waiting for him and her running over to him and cuddling him close in her tails.

She wasn’t here, though. 

She’d said she might be late! Naruto had three whole days to wait for her. He’d probably wait twice that, if she didn’t show up, because obviously he was so awesome that he’d arrived early. Yeah, there was no way that she wouldn’t come. Takashi was no match for her!

Right?

Naruto snarled and shook his head back and forth. He hated that word.

Yuki hadn’t ever lied to him yet. And she was a fox, which just made her feel different to a human. She’d come. She had to. If Naruto could do it, then so could she!

Naruto sighed. He was never quite certain if people were going to hurt him or stay out of his way or randomly decide to be nice to him. Even with his team, the closest he had to friends, he was good at getting them to pay attention to him but that was about it. Kakashi-sensei had said that those who abandon their teammates are worse than trash, and Naruto would absolutely never be worse than trash! Sasuke though, and Sakura…and Kakashi-sensei had ditched them plenty. 

Then there was Takashi.

Yuki, though, was different. Naruto didn’t really get why, or what it was that just made her make sense to him, but Naruto realized that sometime over the past month he’d decided to trust her. It felt weird, and scary, and like he was standing in front of a cart in the road that was about to hit him if he didn’t move, but he still felt it. Because, Yuki, she really deserved it. And Naruto, even though it made no sense, felt like a more trustworthy person because he was trusting her.

Maybe, now with Yuki, Naruto would be able to say “this person is not like Yuki, so I shouldn’t trust them” and then stuff like with Mizuki and Takashi wouldn’t happen.

Maybe, if Naruto tried to be like Yuki, then he could be someone that Konoha and all of his precious people trusted someday. And once they trusted him, then maybe he’d be able to understand them better and trust them back.

A maybe was plenty to be worth trying for.


	11. Past

The stone wasn’t quite so blinding anymore, now that the sun was setting. 

Naruto stared out towards the red and pink on the horizon beyond the forest. Now that he was out of the woods, he could see that the sunset, and thus the Kyuubi-tree, was clockwise by maybe around four hours from the path of death. That meant that, for some reason, Naruto had zig-zagged on his way to this huge rock with its nine streams. All he could figure was that Yuki had thrown him crooked, maybe? 

He was totally going to tease her about that when she got here.

The nine streams on the stone were so clear it was hard to even see them. The stone beneath them was just so bright and clean and white, and the streams each had their own little groove in the rock. The name of the rock meant that it was supposed to be nine grooves for each of the Kyuubi’s tails, and they did look soft enough. They weren’t cracks or divots or even just how the stone happened to be shaped. All Naruto could compare it to was like wrinkled bedsheets, or glazed pottery. Between the silent water’s waves and the stone’s waves, the whole place just came across to Naruto as inexplicably smooth. It reminded him a lot of Yuki’s tails. 

With a loud sigh, Naruto leaned back and grimaced. The first thing he’d done when he got here was drink as much water as he physically could. Now, whenever he moved he kind of…sloshed. He’d never sloshed before. There wasn’t any food here, though, and sloshing was way better for his stomach than grumbling and twisting. 

It hadn’t been three days yet. The sun hadn’t set quite all the way, which meant it hadn’t been three days. So, Yuki was definitely coming. Because Naruto trusted Yuki, and she’d said she’d be here. 

She was coming.

She’d be here.

She was totally okay.

The last tiny sliver of sun just touched the horizon, and Naruto’s heart clenched in his chest. 

“Naruto!” 

Naruto whipped around towards the call. There, bounding out of the woods, there she was! She’d made it! Her teeth were all bared in a grisly smile, and with every leap she took towards Naruto her hind legs kicked higher and higher until she was prancing towards him like a giant puppy. With a yelp of his own, Naruto threw himself upright and leaped up onto his feet, sprinting out across the stone towards Yuki. 

“Yukiiiiiiii!” Throwing out his arm, Naruto collided against Yuki just at the edge of the stone, and then he had his arm around her. But more importantly, all of her tails were wrapped up around him and she was laughing and warm and right there! “Yuki!” he mumbled again, this time buried in the thick fur of her chest and throat. He could feel her massive pulse, and he loved every single thump of it. 

“Oh, my Naruto, my kit, I was so scared! Thank the Kyuubi you’re okay!” When Naruto had been little, he’d been at a playground, once, before he’d been run off, and some stupid littler kid had wandered off. The kid’s mom, it must’ve been his mom, had yelled the dumb kid’s name over and over until he came out from under the slide. When she spotted the kid, the mom had scooped him up and said ‘Thank goodness’. The tone she’d had, like her most precious treasure had been found, that was how Yuki sounded. Naruto’s eyes went hot and blurry. Yuki probably didn’t notice, which Naruto was super glad about, because she just stayed wrapped around him, running several of her tails up and down his ribs. “Oh, oh no,” she moaned after a few sweeps, “you’re so skinny!” Naruto’s stomach swooped and his eyes got hotter and wetter. Quickly, he pulled his face out of Yuki’s fur to glare up at her.

“You were almost late-ttebayo!” he scolded. Yuki’s ears flicked back over a gleaming red set of puppy-eyes. Naruto pouted. That just wasn’t fair!

“But I was on time!” said Yuki, tilting her head and wrapping more tails around his stomach. It growled, and Yuki eyed his torso with a grin. A single tail rose from behind her. There was a large sack slung over the curl of the tip. “And,” she continued, “I brought dinner?”

Naruto eyed the sack for a moment, but he just couldn’t keep his pout when Yuki started wiggling her fuzzy eyebrows at him like some big dork. In its place, a smile stretched over Naruto’s cheeks against his will. Oddly, when he smiled like this, without a choice, his eyes didn’t scrunch shut like when he smiled on purpose. Naruto figured that was okay, though, because it meant his eyes were open when Yuki smiled back, before opening the sack and dumping out the tastiest feast Naruto had seen in months.

Yuki was the best. Dattebayo.  
*****  
“We’ll need to leave sometime today, kit. Now that you’ve slept a good night through and eaten some solid meals, it’s best not to linger where that human wretch could catch up.”

Naruto felt weird, hearing Yuki talk about Takashi. Like, he’d spent over a month with Takashi, then only a few days with Yuki, and then a month all alone. And now, Yuki had only just found him last night! He didn’t even really get what was going on. Not like he was being stupid about it, he got that Takashi wanted to catch him and then use the Kyuubi to hurt Konoha, but he also was having some trouble figuring out just why all of these things were happening. Like, for the first time, Naruto thought it was very strange, that he out of anybody had the Kyuubi inside of him, that he out of anybody had ended up in this situation. And Takashi and Yuki, they were both weird too, maybe, because Naruto was pretty sure he knew what they wanted, but why they wanted it was beyond him in so many ways. He wanted to understand them. Both of them.

“Hey, Yuki?” he called. Yuki looked up from where she was rearranging something or other in her sack. She had a fuuinjutsu brush between her teeth. “Uh, um.” The longer Yuki looked at him, the more Naruto panicked. “Where are we going!” he yelped. Yuki stared at him a moment longer. Then, she shrugged and spun the brush away into some hidden place in thin air. 

“Ideally, we’re getting you back to Konoha, where Takashi won’t be able to take you so easily. Then I can get on with hunting him down without putting you at risk.” Yuki shrugged again. “The humans there have to be good for something, if you lasted this long. Though,” she eyed him thoughtfully, “you are fairly cunning yourself. I know you’ve been able to protect yourself before. How have you been doing without access to your chakra?”

The skin on his stomach was just as scarred and stretched as it had felt when he woke up the first time from the Kyuubi Tree fight. In the woods, it had reminded him of what was inside him so often, that he’d kind of started to think of it as a way for the Kyuubi to get out rather than as something that kept the Kyuubi in. And, well, kept him inside as well. He was his chakra, kind of, yeah? He thought he could remember Iruka-sensei saying something like that, once. 

“Naruto.” Naruto looked up to see Yuki staring back at him, eyes warm and crinkled. He took a deep breath. It’d been a while since he’d gone so long without talking, and he had the sinking suspicion that he was going to keep forgetting to answer Yuki for a few days yet, before he got used to someone being there again. Yuki’s eyes softened further. She leaned down close, and Naruto drew his knees up to his chest. He felt super small at first, next to Yuki, but then she wrapped herself around him like a mama cat around a kitten, and then he just felt warm. “We’ll get you back to Konoha, little fox,” she said. Naruto winced, and Yuki coiled tighter. “What’s the matter, Naruto?”

“Nothing,” Naruto muttered reflexively. Yuki stayed wrapped around him, silent and strong. She didn’t agree with him and change the subject. She also didn’t call him on lying. It took a minute for Naruto to try again, but her quiet made it easier. “So,” he whispered, “I’m going home to Konoha, and then you’re gonna stay here.”

“Ah, I see.” 

Naruto frowned and squinted up at Yuki’s massive, looming head. “Whuh?” he called. Yuki’s warm breath puffed in his face, and he could feel his bangs blow away from his forehead. It still felt weird, having his forehead bare. Yuki’s face came in close to his until one single, red eye was level with his face, staring deep into his own. When she spoke, Yuki’s voice echoed not from her clenched jaw and bared teeth, but from deep in her chest.

“You’re my kit, now, Naruto,” she said. A growl rumbled beneath her words. “You need to be in Konoha, and so that’s where I’ll be going. I am not abandoning you.”

Naruto could feel his lungs expand, bending at the edges with how wonderful her words made him feel. 

“Oh,” he weakly replied. Yuki’s big eye blinked once, slow. “Um, sorry, for, um, uh. I didn’t, I didn’t mean…”

“I know. I understand.” Yuki pulled her head back away, and retreated further away from him to return her attentions to their travel sack. “Thank you for the apology, Naruto. Don’t worry anymore, now, okay?”

“Yeah,” said Naruto. One of Yuki’s tails had remained wrapped loosely around his ankle. He could easily get away if he wanted, but that wasn’t the point, he didn’t think. “Okay.”

The Kyuubi stone, with its nine streams, was even brighter in the morning light than in the dusk light, blinding white where the sunset made the stone burn orange and gold. The sun wasn’t climbing in the sky, though, just skating its path around the edge of the world like always, so Naruto couldn’t begin to guess why the sky was different colors at different times of day if the sun never actually got any higher. Just sitting and staring at the sky was nice, though.

Or rather, it had been for the first three days. Now, Naruto had company and he was very ready to go home. 

“So how do we get back to Konoha? Do we get to write a seal?” he asked. Yuki was filling up the last of a long line of funnel-topped bottles with water, but she looked up to answer him immediately. Her attention made Naruto feel solid. Like, Yuki was solid and reliable and she payed attention to Naruto so he also got to be solid and reliable. 

“Mmm,” she hummed. One tail flicked up to tap her chin thoughtfully. “No. It’s not quite that easy, see. There can’t just be a seal on this side of the world, but there has to be one in your world as well. The nine trees are usually the only places that reliably have some marker on the other side. But!” Yuki’s tail darted away and she beamed over her shoulder to Naruto. “There is one place where a seal remains.”

“Cool!” Naruto yelled. “Where is it?”

“Ah,” Yuki slowly replied. The tail returned, and her smile faded. “What you have to understand about the summoning realm is that it’s the same world as yours, in many ways. We live amongst the same hills and oceans, separated only by who does the living. Here, chakra floods the world untouched. There, it is humans. But, beneath it all, the bedrock is the same.” Yuki was frowning, now. Naruto eyed her warily. He thought he was understanding what she was saying, but he didn’t get what that had to do with where they were going, and that made him kind of nervous. “The forest surrounding the Kyuubi Tree, for example, is the same forest which surrounds Konoha, only changed in the places where chakra, here, has taken root, and where humans, there, have cut those roots away. The forest you traversed is, plainly put, the forest that would be in your world if Konoha had never existed.”

Puffing up his cheeks, Naruto rocked forward in his seat and grabbed his ankles in his one hand. “What’s all this gotta do with getting home?” he asked. Yuki put down the last water bottle and turned to face him fully.

“There is one place in your world with the skill in sealing we need.” As she spoke, Yuki’s tails, as one, rotated to point back into the forest he’d come from, only this time they pointed in the direction in which the plants unanimously died. “Tomorrow, we will set out for the red shores of Uzushio. Tomorrow, we will begin your journey home.”  
*****  
The green light of foxfire swirled around Naruto and Yuki.

He and Yuki had ventured back into the forest together, and several days had passed in simple peaceful walking. Their journey had been quiet, so far. At first, Naruto had been stuck on the thought of Uzushio. Yuki had made sure that he understood that Uzushiogakure wouldn’t be there. Still, something about Uzushio had made the Uzumaki choose it as their home. Maybe he’d love it as well. Except, Konoha was his home. And he’d never even met any Uzumaki. So, Naruto’s thoughts just kept going in circles, round and round between Uzushio and Konoha until he gave up and decided to think about basically anything else. ‘Anything else’ was pretty limited thanks to being on a super long trip through a forest with nobody but Yuki. In all, Naruto was just about ready to burst he was so bored. 

Naruto would later reflect that being bored was super underrated.

Yuki was walking at Naruto’s side. He’d noticed early on that she was totally silent. Her paws didn’t crinkle the leaves, snap any twigs, nothing. Her breaths were quiet, too. Her silence made Naruto self-conscious, and so he’d been trying to be quiet like her. He was pretty sure he’d gotten his breaths quiet, but walking quiet was way harder here in the woods than it was in Konoha. He could do it! He was too good at pranks to be completely useless at traveling silently. It was just harder work when it was for hours and hours and through a forest. 

Eventually, Naruto couldn’t stand it anymore and he yawned long and deep. His lone arm was always sore, these days, so he reached it up in a long stretch as well, groaning from deep in his chest. It came out a bit squeaky, but Naruto refused to acknowledge that. 

Then, he made an even squeakier noise when Yuki used his arm being raised to jab a tail into his armpit. 

Naruto hunched over with a yelp, scowling over at Yuki, who was snorting through poorly hidden giggles. He was just about ready to yell his displeasure, when her laughter cut off all at once and she stared him down with freezing cold eyes.

“You can’t let your guard down,” she said. “With ninjutsu taken from you, likely for the rest of your life, your taijutsu and fuuinjutsu have to be flawless. You’ve been doing well at practicing silence, but that won’t be enough for long.” Just as quickly as the blank cold had fallen over her face, Yuki grinned once again, baring all of her sharp white teeth. “So, to keep my precious kit safe, I’m just going to have to tickle some situational awareness into you!”

“Wha-?” Naruto barely had time to gasp before Yuki was on him, jabbing tails at his neck and his stump, assaulting him with bits of white fluff.

Their pace forward sped up significantly as Naruto learned to sprint for his dignity away from the madly giggling fox nipping at his heels.  
*****  
Every night, Naruto flopped over wherever they chose to stop. Running was so exhausting! It didn’t used to be, but all of his steps were off, now. He didn’t know, before, just how much work his left arm did even when he wasn’t using it. It kept him balanced, and propelled him forward, stabilized him. Now it was gone every other bit of his body felt like it was working even harder. 

It didn’t help that Yuki was totally targeting the spot where she’d bitten it off.

“Hey, hey,” he huffed at Yuki. He was leaning against her flank, rising and falling with her steady breaths. She didn’t ever get tired for some reason. Naruto wanted to be like her so much that he could taste it! “Why do you gotta keep targeting my stump, huh? That’s totally not fair! And tickling it feels weird, too. Like, I don’t think I’m supposed to have skin there, so you touching feels, mmm, yanno.”

“Everyone you ever fight is going to target it, Naruto,” Yuki gently replied. Naruto slumped slightly against her. “The better you get at dealing with it, the more a weakness can be a strength. You’ll get better. You’re already getting better. If you can think of a better way for me to train you, I’d be happy to try it, but for now this seems like our best option.”

“It’s embarrassing,” Naruto muttered. He wasn’t truly arguing, he got Yuki’s point. But still! Yuki’s laugh rumbled through her chest against Naruto’s back. 

“You’re my kit,” said Yuki, voice dripping in affection. Naruto’s face heated, but his stomach squirmed happily. “It’s my job to embarrass you!”

“No it’s not!” he yelled. Yuki’s laughs got more jarring, until Naruto sat up and turned to plant his palm against her flank. “You just think it’s funny!”

“Ha ha!” Control was not returning to Yuki. Rather, she was laughing harder. “Making the world a bit funnier is my job! Didn’t you know, Naruto? The world is absurd, chaotic, and full of unexpected joys. I consider it not just my job, but my calling to add some laughter to the mix.”

“Heh,” Naruto huffed. He could kind of understand that. The urge to prank somebody always got worse, after all, when the villagers were being particularly mean. It was like, if he didn’t understand why people were doing things, and the world was all strange and hostile, he might as well try to make it better by making a joke of it. Still. He’d never really thought, much, that playing a prank could maybe make the world better. 

“Ah, still. Best we get you started on your fuuinjutsu, now your taijutsu is starting to come along.”

“Eh!?” Naruto bolted upright, standing before Yuki on steady feet. He was kind of proud, actually, not long ago he’d have been off balance for a second while his body remembered that he was missing some weight on his left. “You’re gonna teach me more seals? Yes! What first? Can I have a brush? Can we learn more tomorrow, too?”

“Mmm, of course,” Yuki replied. “You’re a fox, sealing is basically required, and from what I’ve gathered you have a talent for it. Not to mention all of that chakra you’ve got should go to some use, if ninjutsu isn’t an option anymore. Tell me, what have you learned so far?”

Naruto wilted. This was going to be way more embarrassing than the taijutsu practice. “Well, ano,” he said, rubbing at the back of his neck. Yuki didn’t make a jab at his opening this time, thank goodness. “I only kind of learned how to make a storage seal, but I can’t manage to seal anything but plain ol’ air. Takashi said-“ Naruto cut himself off with a gulp. Yuki shuffled towards him and wrapped a tail around his shoulders. “Um, that is, I learned all of the pieces for a storage seal, and how to put them together, but sometimes I got this idea that I could try something different and then Takashi would have me start over. I guess I’m not super great at seals, cuz I couldn’t write ones like Takashi’s, even when they were right in front of me.” Naruto grimaced and looked away. He didn’t want to see Yuki’s face, not after she’d sounded so sure of his abilities. Not to mention, he wasn’t a fox, and whatever foxes and sealing had to do with each other, this might be the thing that made Yuki decide he was a human after all and not worth her time. 

“That’s ridiculous.” Naruto winced. He could feel Yuki staring at him, but still wasn’t willing to look up. “You can’t learn seals through mimicry, not entirely anyways. Not if you want to be a good seal master. It sounds to me that your instincts are better than I thought. After all, a storage seal for air is much more useful if it isn’t used for storage.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it.” Yuki laid down her big head into her paws. Her seven long tails waved behind her, lazy like reeds above a pond. “When you play a prank, you never use an object for its intended use, right? A fight is much the same, as is sealing. You get much more use out of things by thinking about what they can do rather than what they should do. Like, mmm, water. It should be used for drinking or bathing, but a good prank uses water to soak someone or something, or make something slippery, maybe to move something, or even to hide something in an unexpected place. All parts of a seal are like that. No seal should be for ‘storage’ because a seal that can pull something into it, keep it there, and then release it again can do so much more than just store things!”

Naruto hadn’t thought of it like that. Now that he was, he couldn’t help but think that the ability to move air around, especially knowing, now, about stuff like air pressure, was way more useful than he’d thought. 

“Could, maybe,” said Naruto, staring ponderously into the air above him, “could I use it to make a super strong breeze? Or, like, a whirlpool of air? Or to use air to push things?”

“See, Naruto?” Yuki replied. “You do have a talent for this. You’re thinking like a fox, now.”  
*****  
Six whole weeks. 

Six whole weeks of training, of fluffy taijutsu completely different than anything he’d learned before, of fuuinjutsu totally different than all the stuff Takashi had said, and of talking and laughing and playing with Yuki, who never once left his side. 

The trees were beginning to thin, now, as the foxfire growth gave way to normal old woods. Lots more sunlight shone through, as a result, and Naruto found he liked it lots better than the perpetual night of the foxfire forests. It was like the night felt more unreal and significant, when there was daylight there to remind him of what realness and being awake felt like. Yuki seemed pleased as well, if her bouncy steps and flouncy tails were anything to go by. 

Naruto, too, was feeling not good, but better. Just yesterday, he’d managed to get in a hit on Yuki while avoiding her jabs! He’d gotten hit right after, sure, which had made Yuki scold him, but he was still kind of proud. And he could tell Yuki was, too. 

Being a shinobi, even while missing an arm, it didn’t feel impossible anymore.

As they approached their destination, Naruto was running ahead, peering into crannies and gaps, more out of boredom and excess energy than out of any real curiosity. Everything here looked the same after six whole weeks of walking. This was one of his rare breaks, though, and the lack of training was kind of getting to him. If they stopped, he could at least try to take a nap, but he wanted to reach Uzushio soon, too, and he knew Yuki did too. 

So, when Naruto ducked his head to peek under a passing tree and spotted a monster, he was pretty surprised.

Naruto had to stifle a scream. He jerked back from the nook in the roots and scrambled towards Yuki, baring his teeth and clenching his fist all the while. Just as his back hit warm fur he felt a set of tails wind around him into a shield of fluff.

“Peace, little fox, it’s okay. It can’t do anything, we’re okay.”

Incredulously, Naruto kept his eyes on the monster beneath the tree and watched as, true to Yuki’s word, the beast did not so much as twitch. On second observation, Naruto saw that its eyes were clouded and unmoving for all the creature was breathing.

“W-what is it?” he whispered up to Yuki. He’d never seen a creature anything like it. Its huge head and body, larger than three of Yuki, was flaming orange sliced through with black stripes and its massive paws boasted claws the size of kunai. Under all the fur, Naruto could tell that, even compared to Yuki, that thing was all muscle.

“She’s called a tiger. Or, rather, a tigress. She’s a Hyuuga summons. All the tigers were.”

Naruto leaned in slightly to focus on the tiger’s eyes. They looked cloudy, sure, but not in the natural way that Hinata-chan’s were. The tiger just looked sick. “Hyuuga?” he asked, returning to his normal volume.

“They do something to their shinobi, bind their chakra into them. Only a few members of the Hyuuga did not have it, and their summons are long dead or gone. After the tigers began to fade, the remaining free elders took back their summoning contract. But those elders died a long time ago, and the contract with them. The only tigers remaining are those remnants of the bound Hyuuga. They’re all like that. Lingering.”

Naruto shuddered, and tore his eyes away from the tiger. “Why?”

Yuki shrugged above his head. “A summons is chakra given form. When contracted to a shinobi, their chakra and our selves, it’s like, mmm, a reflection in a mirror. The Hyuuga, they have flesh bodies with which to perform actions not dictated by whatever curse this is. The summons, beings of pure chakra, had no such protection.” Yuki sounded sad, and Naruto could appreciate why. It was a sad story, he could tell already. What set the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge was the tone of pleasure in Yuki’s voice. Like she’d been hoping for something like this. “When I was little, I met a tiger who managed to escape their seal when their summoner died. I thought someone must be dying, but when I and my father followed the sound of screaming, I found only a dying tiger. My father told me that evening about the tigers of old, before the Hyuuga began binding away their own people’s chakra. They were proud, free hunters of the forests. The betrayal of the tigers by the Hyuuga can only be compared to the betrayal of kin.” Yuki sighed and one tail twirled to wrap firmly around Naruto’s hand. Something fell between Naruto’s fingers and he grasped it under the pressure of Yuki’s hold. He looked down to his hand. It was a kunai. “You’ve come a far way in your training, Naruto. Far enough that you’re ready to learn this as well.” Yuki paused, and the pride in her voice faded to something solid and regretful. “This tigress is a corpse waiting for her pain to end. Put her to rest, Naruto.” 

Naruto’s fingers clenched around the kunai. He turned to look at the tigress. She didn’t look alive or dead, asleep or awake. Yet, she still looked like she was watching him.

His arm was shaking.

When Naruto stepped away from her, the kunai left lodged in her massive skull, he stepped straight into Yuki’s embrace. The first sob that shuddered through him shouldn’t have been such a surprise, but even so it took him a moment to realize why his fingers were cramping from their grip on Yuki’s pelt. 

“Naruto.” The whisper above him was accompanied by Yuki’s heartbeat in his ear. The sound made Naruto’s breath speed up, imagining that it was Yuki instead whose fur and bone had given way beneath his knife. “You must never forget this. Never forget what evil looks like, or how it spreads to infect everyone it touches. Chakra is life, and self, all in one. And so, it is also death. That’s what makes us shinobi.”


	12. Present

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke vs. Naruto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um...sorry Sasuke.

When Shikamaru’s hand raised over the balcony edge and twisted around the rail, Naruto could see the cuts all up and down his arms. They looked painful, but they weren’t bleeding a whole lot which was probably good. Honestly, Naruto hadn’t figured out his whole healing thing for so long because he just figured everyone healed as quick as him. It wasn’t like he’d ever gotten close enough with somebody to check, and even if he had, well, who would even think to look for that? So, in his inexpert opinion, Shikamaru was either perfectly fine or near death. 

Shikamaru and death in the same thought made Naruto wince and rub his left shoulder. 

Still, he wasn’t about to panic or anything, because Shikamaru’s team was right there at the balcony and helping Shikamaru up and over, and while they did look freaked they didn’t look actually scared like they would if it was serious. No, Ino-chan actually just looked super pissed off and Chouji was eating super fast. And Shikamaru’s old bearded sensei was puffing on a cigarette stub. Naruto smirked a little at the sensei’s face. It looked like old beardy’s eyes were about to pop out of his head! But, Naruto realized as he looked back to Shikamaru, Shikamaru wasn’t looking at any of them. He was staring over at Naruto instead. 

Shikamaru’s gaze raked over Naruto’s face and caught on Naruto’s eyes when they met. Abruptly, Naruto was reminded of just how badass Shikamaru had been down in the arena. He’d always known Shikamaru was smart, but that! That had been so amazing. Looking into Shikamaru’s sharp, searching eyes, Naruto found himself thinking that Shikamaru would make a really amazing fox. Then, Shikamaru seemed to find what he was looking for, because he smirked slow and pleased at Naruto, who felt his own eyes widen in response. A smile started to grow on his own face, albeit a more confused one. 

“Shikamaru.”

Naruto’s head, and the heads of everyone else, whipped around to look up to the top of the stairs above them. Standing there in jounin gear was a man that had, among other things, Shikamaru’s exact eyes. 

“Dad.” Shikamaru sounded bored, like he always did. Naruto didn’t buy it for a minute and neither did the new guy. The man, who must be Shikamaru’s dad, stalked down the steps to his son and looked down at him. For a moment, Naruto tensed. A man looming like that over Shikamaru, well, Naruto didn’t care who the hell he was. If he touched Shikamaru…

“Uncle Shikaku!” squealed Ino-chan, and the spell was broken. Shikamaru smirked as Ino-chan, beaming, threw herself at older Nara’s and wrapped herself around his waist. Chouji pulled his hand from his chip bag to wave and the old Nara slumped over with a sigh.

“Hi, Ino-chan, hi Chouji. Hello, Asuma-san,” he said. His voice was deep and mellow, and he looked disarmingly soft when he reached down to pat Ino-chan’s head. Naruto lost some of the tension in his gut. When Shikamaru looked up to his Dad and pouted, the last of Naruto’s worry faded away. “So,” said Shikamaru’s dad, “you fought pretty hard, down there.”

“Yeah, Shikamaru!” added Ino-chan. “I’ve never seen you put so much effort into anything! You just-“ Ino-chan cut herself off and bit her lip, leaning her head against old Nara’s hip. Shikamaru shrugged without looking away from his dad. 

Shikamaru’s dad sighed yet again and placed a massive, scarred hand onto Shikamaru’s shoulder. “Let’s get you patched up while we sit to watch the next match. Your mother’s going to kill me, you know, when she sees what you did to yourself.”

“Heh,” Shikamaru snorted.

“Naruto.”

At the call of his name, Naruto was forced to turn away from Shikamaru, only to be faced with Kakashi, standing tall above him with an unreadable look in his eye.

“Sensei?” said Naruto. He hadn’t seen his teacher look so grim in, like, ever, probably since the Wave mission. Or, if he was being honest, since Naruto had finished his match against Neji. 

The longer Naruto stared up at Kakashi-sensei, the more the man drooped. Also, the more Naruto's eye began to sting. Apparently getting blood in your eye over and over, and then wiping it away over and over, made it hurt. Who knew. Certainly not Naruto. He couldn't wait for the kyuubi to sort itself out and get back to healing him, but that could be days away according to Yuki.

“Maa, Naruto,” said Kakashi-sensei, interrupting his eyeball-thoughts, “unless I can convince you to sit this out, it’s time for you to enter the arena.”

“Ah!” Glancing over, Naruto looked through the railing and saw that, indeed, Sasuke was down there already, standing near the proctor and scowling up at where Naruto was sitting. Naruto quickly stood up and patted some dust off of his bloody tank-top, only wincing a little bit when he patted his sore belly. When he looked up, Kakashi-sensei was staring desperately at him with his single eye. He looked a lot more worried than Naruto would have expected. But Naruto was going to be fine, so he spared his sensei a smile and patted his elbow, which was roughly face-height to Naruto. “Thanks, Kakashi-sensei,” he said sincerely. Eyeing the little smear of blood Naruto had left on his sleeve, Kakashi-sensei drooped further. Naruto hoped that wouldn't stain.

Before Naruto could disturb Kakashi-sensei any more, he quickly turned and jumped over into the arena. He landed with, thankfully, only a slight wobble across from Sasuke. 

Sasuke was scowling at Naruto with his typical emo-ness. In fact, the only real big difference was his outfit. He was wearing the most ridiculous one-piece romper Naruto had ever seen in his life. He looked like he was wearing an old-timey bathing suit with a stretched-out neck. And, of course, it was black. In contrast to Sasuke’s predictability, the referee looked a lot less surprised by Naruto this time around. So that was nice. 

Waving a hand in the air, the referee gave them each one last glance, and let his hand drop. “Match, start!”

Sasuke and Naruto fell into their stances, Sasuke in his standard taijutsu stance as Naruto remembered, Naruto in his new stance. Naruto’s stance put his arm back, tucked in to guard as much as his torso as possible, and his open shoulder leading. Yuki had worked way too hard at making Naruto’s weakness into a strength for Naruto to favor his left side and waste her efforts. The line of his shoulders was off, compared to Sasuke’s straight and balanced posture. Naruto could avoid a lot, but uneven weight distribution was inevitable. His lower back was going to ache by the end of today.

He and Sasuke were still, facing each other and waiting. Internally, though, Naruto was scrambling. Sasuke had so many awesome jutsus, and he was so fast, that Naruto had no chance without some sort of plan. Even as he thought of them, Sasuke’s Sharingan spun into existence and Naruto twitched his eyes away to watch Sasuke’s feet. 

Naruto’s breathing quickened. He’d never won against Sasuke. Not once.

“Naruto!” came the call from the stands. He looked up for a split-second to see Shikamaru of all people, leaning over the railing and pumping a single fist into the air. Already hoarse, Shikamaru shouted to Naruto the very words he’d used before. “You’re going to win!”

“Dobe,” Sasuke snarled, and Naruto barely threw himself out of the way as Sasuke broke their stalemate and launched a kick right at his gut. Naruto fell back onto the defensive, a familiar rythm of darting and weaving that allowed him to avoid using taijutsu altogether. “You moron,” Sasuke went on, “You were already weak before, and now you want to fight me as half a shinobi?” Naruto came up on the wall of the arena, and in the process of changing directions Sasuke’s leg rammed into the back of his knees. He went down hard onto his right hand, but also onto his left side. He could feel the sting of a scrape over his left shoulder, one he knew from experience would continue slowly bleeding until he could clean out all of the dirt. Above him, Sasuke glared down at Naruto with a sneer. “No wonder you run like a coward. Pathetic.”

Naruto had been here so many times. He shoved down any hurt he might have felt at Sasuke’s words, keeping his eyes firmly away from the empty space on his left side. There was nothing new about being sprawled beneath a gloating Sasuke after a spar, not even the smug cruelty of his opponent. The helpless feeling was almost nostalgic, as Naruto twisted his right arm beneath him and drew in his knees. Even Sasuke’s stance was familiar.

Too familiar. Naruto had been in this exact position with Sasuke so many times, that it was startling to realize he already knew what to do next.

“Sheesh,” said Naruto. Then he kicked upwards hard and fast, balancing only on his hand, and sent Sasuke reeling backwards. Within seconds he was back on his feet and crouching down to plant a seal into the ground. “You’re, like, not creative at all. This is an exam, yanno, so do you maybe wanna chill? Freaking out isn’t super chunin-like dattebayo.” Naruto had to yelp and leap backwards yet again as Sasuke sent a fireball straight at his head. “Yeesh! No need to get so heated dattebayo! Ha!” He flipped out of the way of another fire jutsu, giggling at the almost obnoxious levels of fury on Sasuke’s face. “Get it?”

With growing bemusement, Naruto proceeded to dodge fireball after fireball, until Sasuke was panting and coughing. Then, the teme went back to taijutsu, kicking and punching always in the spot where Naruto had been just a split second before. In fact, Naruto was managing to slowly but surely draw Sasuke back over towards the seal he’d drawn earlier, although Sasuke was slowing down and resorting more and more to kunai. It didn’t take long until all but a single kunai clenched in Sasuke’s fist had been buried into the dust in Naruto’s wake.

Why was this so easy?

Naruto never beat Sasuke! But now, it was like he could control everything about the fight. Like Sasuke was just doing what Naruto wanted him to do. 

There was something Shikamaru had said ringing in his ears. Something like ‘maybe, it’s time to move forward.’ Naruto, he’d spent so much time fighting Sasuke, hating him even, wanting to be stronger than him. Strength wasn’t about beating Sasuke, though, or anybody, really. He knew that. So, this time, for the first time, Naruto thought that maybe he wouldn’t fight Sasuke with the goal of beating Sasuke. This time, he was going to fight so that he could win a path forward. Past this cycle of hatred he was stuck in with Sasuke.

Somehow, without even noticing, Naruto had become a person who didn’t have to feel inferior to Sasuke anymore.

Then, Sasuke’s heel sliced through the seal Naruto had laid in the dirt.

“You cannot escape my eyes,” Sasuke said, finally calm. “I see the seals you put down. You’re too slow, dobe.” Indeed, from his stance near the edge of the arena, Naruto could see Sasuke’s eyes had gone red and spinny. He’d be able to spot and track any fuuinjutsu trap Naruto put in front of him, now.

“Dammit!” he snarled, loud and echoing through the arena. Inside, though, he was delighted. 

Now, he had bait!

He hoped Shikamaru was watching, because this was going to be good. 

Keeping his face grim, Naruto slapped a large, gaudy seal onto the wall behind him, and then began to climb, straight up, occasionally glancing back down at the seal beneath him. Even a shinobi without a doujutsu might have been able to see it, Naruto had made the work so sloppy. As soon as his hand was free, he clenched his fist and marked his palm. Without a brush, he could only manage simple storage seals for air. This seal was one he’d made especially for suction.

The foundation of a prank was using something in a way other than what it was meant for.

Like clockwork, Sasuke ran at Naruto, or more specifically, at the seal underneath him, with his last kunai drawn. Within moments he’d swiped through the seal with the flat of the blade, destroying both the seal and his kunai in the process. Naruto never got to see Sasuke’s expression as he did so. By the time Sasuke looked up, Naruto had already dropped down almost on top of Sasuke. Sasuke moved just in time, and Naruto barely brushed against Sasuke’s back from where he landed directly behind his opponent.

“Hn!” Grunting, Sasuke slammed an elbow into Naruto’s gut as he spun to face him. He followed with a knee to Naruto’s gut that sent Naruto flying backwards, barely keeping on his feet. But Naruto was grinning. 

He’d managed to place a seal, tiny and inconspicuous, in the one place in this entire arena that Sasuke could not see. 

The back of his own jumpsuit.

And of course, the best way to hide a prank is with a prank.

“Hah!” Naruto shouted, holding up the spool of ninja wire he’d swiped from Sasuke’s pocket. Suction-seals really were amazing. When Sasuke spotted Naruto’s theft, he scowled dangerously and tensed as if to leap.

Naruto launched himself as fast as he could to the nearest tree. On his way, he planted another seal into the dirt for good measure, just to make sure he was followed. Even as he was running, though, he was also twirling the spool of wire, letting it out until he could grasp both ends in his hand. The spool went in his mouth until he’d need it. 

Tying knots with one hand wasn’t in his skillset. He hadn’t had any practice in his time with Yuki, what with her lacking thumbs. The one knot he could do now was, by necessity, very simple. Having held onto both ends of the wire, he’d essentially folded the wire in half. On one side of the tree he left the bend in the wire where it folded. Then, from around the tree, he took the two ends of the wire and fed them through that loop. Now, so long as the wire stayed tight, the loop would stay around the tree, with the two ends free for Naruto to pull away and spin back around the empty spool. This knot was super cool, because it was like a natural trap. So long as whatever you tied the ends off to was big enough, the wire couldn’t be untied unless there was slack in the line. 

Or cut, since Sasuke’s kunai were all stuck in the dirt on the other side of the arena. 

The fall of footsteps alerted Naruto that Sasuke was nearly upon him, and his plan was now or never. When he turned, Sasuke was running towards him full tilt. His Sharingan was spinning in each eye. Naruto wasn’t fast enough to hit him, or even get near him. Sasuke would dodge anything Naruto could throw at him.

So, Naruto threw the spool. 

Sasuke smirked as he twitched to the side, letting the spool sail past him like he’d dodged so many senbon and kunai in the past. Naruto supposed he probably appeared trapped to Sasuke, here next to a tree, playing with ninja wire. A small part of him wondered if Sasuke had even stopped to think about what Naruto was doing with the wire spool. With a sigh, Naruto decided that he’d find out in just a moment, and used the seal on his palm to activate the matching suction seal on Sasuke’s back. Sasuke didn’t even notice as the spool behind him twisted in midair, reversing direction to shoot back towards Sasuke and vanish into the seal. 

All of the excess wire was yanked in as well. 

“What?” Sasuke snarled, skidding to a halt and staring at the taught line straining against his right hip. Naruto guffawed with laughter from where he was already jumping away, well out of range of the end of the wire. 

Naruto found a spot to settle on a boulder across the arena, far from the end of Sasuke’s leash and therefore well away from any fireball jutsu. His teammate was still staring incredulously at the wire, and Naruto snorted when he saw Sasuke reflexively check his kunai pouch and come up empty. Then, Sasuke turned to the tree, and he even took a few instinctive steps towards it. With every step, the seal sucked in even more of the wire’s slack. And what went in was not going to come out. At this point, Naruto could tell from the amount of spool left and the size of Sasuke, he’d never be able to undo the wire. There just wasn’t enough length left to make the loop big enough to go around Sasuke.

Naruto waited until Sasuke had turned back to Naruto, Sharingan blazing through a murderous glare, to offer Sasuke his ultimatum.

“You’ve got two choices, teme!” he shouted across the arena. “Either you lose the jumpsuit, or you forfeit!”

Yeah. Sasuke had picked a really bad day to wear a one-piece outfit. 

“Naruto!” came Sasuke’s answering scream. Up to Naruto’s right, in the stands where his friends were sitting, Naruto could hear hysterical, helpless laughter and equally hysterical screeching. “I’m going to kill you!” Sasuke went on. His face looked almost as red as his Sharingan. 

“So, is that a surrender?” he yelled back. Sasuke was reduced to wordless snarling. Naruto tensed when Sasuke flew through a set of handsigns and two clones popped into existence. The two clone-sukes sped towards Naruto, likely aiming towards the kunai nearby him, but Naruto had already leaned down, picked up two of said kunai, and thrown them out at the clones. Said clones, without the Sharingan, each popped away into wisps of smoke. Sasuke growled, and made two more clones, although the effort had his teammate panting and looking worryingly pale. One clone made the hand signs for a henge and twisted into a kunai which Sasuke snatched out of the air. The other clone ran towards Naruto. Probably as a distraction. Naruto threw a kunai and popped the clone once it got close enough, but otherwise didn’t bother to move. 

The way Sasuke was sawing at the wire for all of two seconds before the kunai popped in his hand spoke volumes. 

Over the next minute, Naruto watched with a growing smile as Sasuke ran through his options. So close to the tree and the wire, anything destructive like a fireball would destroy Sasuke as well. He lacked anything sharp, of course. Naruto got a nice chuckle out of Sasuke trying to use a rock to saw through the wire before he quickly gave up. He even tried to tear apart his jumpsuit, biting down on that ridiculous mixing-bowl collar and yanking with both hands. The fabric, obviously shinobi grade given the Uchiha fan on the back, did not so much as budge. Throughout the whole ordeal, Sasuke would also periodically stop to scrabble with desperate fingers at the seal on the center of his back, squirming like he was trying to scratch an itch. Naruto wasn’t super worried about him scratching away the seal, even if it did finally occur to him to use the tree’s bark. See, the seal itself was, and this was a fun trick, only removable when it wasn’t in use. So long as some wire was inside and some was outside, the chakra in the seal was active, and nothing but a separate chakra source could break it. 

For example, were he so inclined, Naruto could put a second seal over Sasuke’s and break it, cutting off the wire. He’d need a brush and ink, but he could do it. Because Naruto was a pretty awesome fox who always had a backup plan and absolutely refused to ever get caught in one of his own traps. 

Nope, the only way out for Sasuke would be removing the whole romper, and it looked like Sasuke knew it too. Naruto was too far away to hear when Sasuke gave up, but he saw how Sasuke’s shoulders vibrated with tension even as he let his head hang down, chin to chest. His arms fell limp, clenched fists dangling uselessly at his sides. 

It was funny, Naruto thought, how his single arm was proving to be way better than both of Sasuke’s combined. So much for being half a shinobi. 

A huge part of him couldn’t believe this was actually happening, and was waiting with baited breath for Sasuke to pull some overpowered jutsu out of his ass to clobber Naruto. But that moment never came. Shikamaru had really been right. Sasuke was just predictable. Naruto, for all he'd learned, hadn’t realized at all that he'd grown this different at Yuki's side. So different that it was like Sasuke didn’t even know him. In a weird sort of way, it made Naruto feel like his last bond to another person was fading away. 

There was only the length of the arena between him and Sasuke, but it felt like an entire world. 

“Sasuke Uchiha forfeits!” shouted the proctor, now red in the face and biting his lip through a very poorly hidden grin. “The match goes to Naruto Uzumaki!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi was a little worried that the Nara heir was going to die. Him and the Inuzuka still hadn’t stopped laughing, and Shikamaru’s face was going a very interesting purplish color beneath the tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘Although’ he thought, miserably eyeing his third little student, ‘Sakura will probably go out from blood-loss, first, if she doesn’t deal with that nosebleed.’


	13. Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the end.

The sand was golden. Just how the sky was blue, and the beach grasses green, so was the sand golden. But Uzushio did not care about such silly rules. The sun was setting over the water, and Uzushio wanted to be crimson. The water lapping against the shore was red, burning against the darkened pink of the sand, and the flaming light spread from there over all of the island, all the way up the cliffsides, and seeped into the world until even the sky above blushed. 

Naruto wriggled his toes into the sand beneath him. Now that he had reached the shore, he sat heavily onto the ground and stared at the island behind him. The water had beaten against the shore until the bottom of the cliffs was carved out from under the tops, and now the entire edge of Uzushio’s terrace curved inwards as though the land, too, was a wave just waiting to crash. If people lived here, then the shinobi never would have let the terrain get so dangerous. In this place, the homeland of his clan, it was inarguable that there had been no humans claiming these shores. 

It was as though Uzushio had never existed. 

Yet, Uzushio was around every stone. Every place Naruto stepped, every skyscape over the cliffs, every worn-smooth stone seemed to scream to him that this was where they had been. He could see, at the point of the beach, a ragged tide-pool place next to which was the perfect spot for a dock. Above him on the rise, a dip in the mountain of the island was begging for a tower. And, in every squared-off step down to the shore, the soft red stone seemed a breath away from melting into houses and cobblestone streets. It had taken all day for him to reach the water, picking his way down the untamed cliffs, and his heart had been in his throat the whole time. 

He could see why the Uzumaki had settled here all too easily. He’d been here only a day, and he’d already fallen in love. Every spray of saltwater off the ocean winds made him feel like he was home.

Beneath his toes, the footprint he’d made was washed away, wave by wave. 

Uzushio wasn’t here, and as welcoming as this island was, it did not need the Uzumaki. The world didn’t care whether the Uzumaki lived or died. Whether it had never met them, or said a final goodbye, this island went on without his clan. And Naruto hated himself for thinking this place was beautiful even when Uzushio had never happened. 

The sound of sand crunching beneath steps had him looking up, and he saw Yuki walking down the shore. She was red, too, now, especially the marks on the tips of her tails and around her eyes and throat. There was more Uzumaki blood on her than there was on this entire shoreline. 

Yuki came up next to him and delicately sat at his left, her tails folding behind her. Their travel sack was slung over her shoulder.

“…do we have to leave soon?” he mumbled. His knees were drawn up to his chest and he’d squished his cheek against them as a head-rest. One was red where he’d scraped it earlier today. The scrape had healed within seconds, of course, but the blood had stayed. 

Without looking away from the horizon, Yuki shook her head. “We can stay as long as you’d like, Naruto. I wouldn’t mind watching the sunset.” She glanced down at him from the corner of her eye, and the tail closest to him flicked playfully. “How’s that suction seal coming along?” Naruto immediately scoffed and swayed over to lean against Yuki’s side. 

“Aw, Yuki!” he whined, “That seal’s stupid! It sucks up everything, so I have to be careful with it, but it’s so weak that it isn’t any good as a weapon either!” Yuki barked with laughter and, against his will, Naruto began to pout. “I’m gonna lose a hand, yanno! It’ll get sucked up, and then I won’t have any hands and I’ll have to fight people with my teeth dattebayo!”

“Ah,” Yuki sighed, laughter petering out, “the joys of beginner’s fuuinjutsu. You’ll learn bigger, brighter things, little fox, but for now you have to master the basics. Besides,” she said with a wink, “it’s the littlest things that make or break a battle, if you know how to use them. You know, I once won a battle with just a twig?”

“Wha!? Really?” Naruto shouted. The waves crashing against the shore made him sound not quite so loud by comparison. 

“Yes, really,” answered Yuki. “And I’ll even tell you how, if you tell me what’s gotten you so down, first.”

Naruto felt his excitement fade away in a heartbeat. He should have figured, honestly, that Yuki would notice. She was weirdly good at telling how he felt about stuff. And more than that, she was just always paying attention. Every single time he’d gotten sad in the whole time they’d been together, Yuki had instantly shown up and done her best to help. Not like Iruka-sensei did, by getting him ramen and telling him to keep his chin up. Sometimes she’d just sit with him. Or she’d listen while he said a bunch of stupid stuff, and afterwords he’d feel like he’d pulled a splinter out of his chest. And once he felt better, she always had something super smart to say. This moment, how they were sitting and Yuki was being quiet and patient, felt like that. Only, today the splinter in his chest felt a lot bigger. 

When Naruto breathed in, the air shuddered in his chest. “Sasuke’s clan died, too,” he said at last. Beside him, Yuki hummed and draped a tail over his shoulders like a scarf. The weight made Naruto’s shakes calm down enough that he felt like he could maybe keep going. “He says that his ambition is to revive his clan, and also to kill the man who killed them.” Naruto frowned, and reached up to twine his fingers through the warm fur of Yuki’s tail. “Takashi wanted to use my chakra to kill the people who killed Uzushio. And I know for sure that’s not the right thing to do. But am I supposed to revive the Uzumaki? Is that what my name means?” 

“Naw,” came Yuki’s answering drawl. Naruto looked up at her fairly startled. He’d never heard her sound so bitter, before. “That seems stupid to me. You can’t bring what’s dead back. It’s not just the people who died, it’s also the clan. Everything they believed, and loved, and hoped for. You can hold onto whats left, but whatever you choose will be yours, not the Uzumaki’s. You’re strong, kit, but no one person can carry the weight of a whole culture.”

Naruto frowned and sat up straighter. “But they were my family! And I like having stuff that belongs to me, like sealing and my name and,” he paused, staring down at the red waters and the red sands. “And how beautiful it is here.” Naruto desperately looked back up at Yuki, who was calmly regarding him even while the saltwater spray made his eyes sting. “I can’t just let it all be forgotten!” To his words, Yuki only shrugged, but her eye fixed upon him was full of warm understanding.

“Then learn from them. Learn everything you can, and bring it with you when you make your own family. After all,” she said, baring her fangs in a mischievous grin, “I hope that if I’ve taught you anything, I’ve taught you to move forward with change, and let the past usher you on. Like a parent encouraging a child.” Her grin faded into a softer smile, made literally softer by her plush fur getting ruffled in the wind. “You’ve got time, Naruto, to learn who you want to be. You don’t need to become yet another remnant of the Uzumaki’s passing.” She turned to look behind them, up to the cliffs, and Naruto realized that from here, on the shore, none of the empty spaces where Uzushio might have been could be seen. Whether or not they were there, it didn’t matter from down on the shore. “The burden of their tragedy may have made you,” Yuki solemnly told him, “but it does not need to define you.”

Naruto sniffled against the stinging in his eyes and tucked himself further against Yuki. She seemed to like cuddles. The heat radiating off of her made Naruto realize that the wind off the ocean was actually pretty cold. He’d gotten goosebumps without noticing. 

“I’m an Uzumaki,” he said, slowly weighing each word for truth, “but I’m from Konoha. And the ocean is nice, and all, but I think I’d really miss the forests back home if I stayed here. And,” he went on, glancing reflexively up at Yuki, “they were my family, but I never met any of them. So, it’d be kind of weird, if I decided that I know exactly who they were and what they would’ve thought about stuff. Like I was pretending nothing bad had happened at all.”

Yuki sighed, and squished him hard against her side. Her giant head dipped down low until the top of her skull, as big as Naruto’s torso, was pressed to his forehead. Into his ear, she whispered, “You should have gotten to meet them. I’m sorry, that you never will.” Yuki’s words were as solid as the press of her head against his. Naruto felt almost like Yuki was pressing her sincerity into him through her hold. It felt like not being alone. Even when Yuki slowly retreated, pulling herself back upright in one long, sinuous movement to look out over the water, Naruto felt like she wasn’t moving away from him at all. Then, she stood up and unwound her tail from his shoulders. “Come into the water with me, Naruto,” she said, keeping her face pointed out towards the sunset. “I have something for you.”

“Eh?” he shouted over the crash of water. “What is it? Is it a new brush? Or a new seal?” He took a deep breath to ask more, but the air caught in his chest as he watched Yuki step out into the water.

Snow-white Yuki’s seven tails waved lazily in the air, the red tips near black in the dusk-light. She was walking out into the waves, but instead of walking over the water like a shinobi she had let herself sink into it, and each wave rolled over her ankles so her fur swirled around in the brine. She walked until the water was just above her feet. For Naruto, that’d be around waist-high. Only then did she look back, and her silhouette was so bright against the red water that Naruto thought weirdly of the fox-fire mushrooms in the forest. 

“Well?” she called. “Aren’t you coming?”

His feet followed the pull in his chest before he’d decided to move. He stomped into the surf, and the little cresting waves broke against his shins. The spray quickly soaked through his shorts and his tank-top. It was funny, how something blazing red from sunlight could be so cold. Naruto grit his teeth and ignored it, fighting against every swell and pull of the water to steadily make his way on his own two feet to Yuki. If he had to dig his toes into the sand to stay standing once he was in front of her, well, that was his own business.

He and Yuki were facing each other, now. Her head was bowed just enough so that she could meet his eyes. The sun was dipping lower, the world getting darker around them. Then, Yuki dipped the tip of each tail into the water behind her, only to wrench them out in an arc which sprayed sparkling drops of water into the air behind her. Naruto watched, spellbound. Around them, the sound of the waves seemed to fade until all he could hear was Yuki.

“A fox earns their tails for moments of trickery,” she said. As she spoke, the seven tails wove through the air like a dance. “Cleverness, not necessarily in triumph at first glance, but in cunning.” Her two massive red eyes met his own, and the slit pupils grew wide in the dark. Naruto was shaking, again, but he didn’t dare move. He didn’t want to interrupt this moment, here in the ocean, where it felt like his entire life was ebbing and flowing around him as Yuki shared her own.

Then, Yuki reared up, and Naruto couldn’t help but gasp. 

“When we met,” Yuki said, suddenly holding a brush between her teeth already dripping black ink into the darkening water, “I had six tails. But saving you, watching and waiting for the perfect moment to snatch you away for my own,” she leaned down, returning her head to his height, “that was a moment of trickery worthy of my seventh tail.”

“It is the goal of every fox,” she went on, “to become a nine-tailed kitsune, just as our God the kyuubi-sama once did. I have never met a nine-tailed fox,” she eyed him mischievously, “nor do I think I ever will. The point of becoming a nine-tail is not to succeed. But to earn every tail along the way!” Just as the last of the sunlight vanished, the water around him and Yuki began to glow green with sparks of fox-fire, and Yuki barked with laughter, head tipped back towards the sky. Naruto could feel how wide his eyes had gone, how he could not seem to keep enough air in his lungs. Yuki had seemed like many things, like a silly friend, or a wise teacher, or even…something like family. Only now, Naruto could see how Yuki could really be a creature made entirely of chakra. Something more than a living being. Suddenly, Yuki swooped down, her back curving up in an arc so that her seven tails waved above her head, silver and black in the moonlight. 

“Your seal is incomplete,” she said, staring up at him with saltwater dripping from her chin. Somehow, the fuuinjutsu brush stayed perfectly dry. Then, her words sank in and Naruto’s stomach clenched.

“What?!” he gasped. “Is the kyuubi, is it gonna get out? Did Takashi break it? I thought you said nothing could get it out of me, now, not without tons of chakra!” Yuki was already shaking her head.

“The kyuubi-sama is sealed. He will not escape. But the seal has gaps, gaps meant for his tails to seep through so that you can use them.” Naruto found himself thinking of every time he’d lost control, his nails going sharp and his vision going red, the fury which boiled from within him until it overflowed. “But you cannot control them,” Yuki said, with a tone of finality. “Because a human cannot control the tails earned by a fox.” Naruto bit his lip, shivering from more than cold, now, feeling as though he was going to shake out of his own skin, only to startle to a stop when Yuki caught his eye and winked. “But you’re not just a human, are you Naruto?” she whispered. The fox-fire glow beneath them swirled with the waves and grew brighter with every moment. “You’re also a fox.”

Two tails grabbed each side of Naruto and spun him around, back to Yuki. He was left staring up at the stars in the sky, and he noted incredulously that there were actual clouds, here, big fluffy ones making their way over the blue-black swirls of nighttime. Then, Yuki had yanked up the back of his shirt and Naruto yelped.

“Hey!” Naruto tried to spin around in the water, but Yuki kept him standing in his place. “What are you doing back there, huh?! Warn a guy at least!” Something cool and wet brushed against the small of his back and Naruto froze, some part of him he’d unknowingly gained in his months of study absolutely certain that the feeling was the tip of a fuuinjutsu brush.

“You’re a fox, Naruto,” Yuki whispered. Naruto couldn’t even breathe against the weight of this strange moment. “You’ve earned your tails.”

The fuuinijutsu brush swiped up his back once, twice, and again, until nine curved lines were inked up the small of his back to his shoulder blades. The seal on his belly was burning like it hadn’t since Takashi had carved it in deeper, but the burn didn’t hurt this time. Like Yuki’s breath on the back of his neck, it just felt warm. 

And then the wet feeling of the ink vanished, and two of the tail marks warmed up to match the seal on his belly.

“Hmm,” said Yuki, almost contemplatively. “Two tails, at your age. You really are a brilliant little fox.”

Yuki's tails unfurled from his sides and Naruto spun in the water, nearly falling but for Yuki catching him. “What was that!?” he screamed, clutching his hair in his fist. 

“That was me, helping you to be who you’ve earned the right to be.” At Yuki’s solemn look, and her calm words, Naruto untensed slightly, and let himself truly look at her. She looked happy. Not just happy, but glowing with joy. 

She looked like Iruka-sensei when Naruto had passed his genin exam, but times ten.

“Naruto,” Yuki said, rolling his name through her fangs like it was precious, “I know what the kyuubi-sama is like. Overwhelming, and angry. But you’re a fox, too. You deserve control. Over your chakra, your actions, your body. So long as you have one more tail than what you ask for, the kyuubi-sama will never control you again. You’re a two-tailed fox, and one tail of the kyuubi-sama’s power is more than within your power to handle. And now, your seal can let that happen without you getting hurt.” Something wet rolled down Naruto’s cheek. The painful awareness he’d had of the skin beneath his kyuubi-seal faded as worries he hadn’t even noticed vanished beneath Yuki’s promise. 

“So,” he tremulously asked, “the more tails I get, the more of its chakra I can use? And I won’t hurt anybody?”

With a rumbling chuckle, Yuki’s tongue swiped up his face. Naruto yelped and glared at her. He didn’t even have a shirt sleeve to wipe that off with!

“The kyuubi-sama is the only nine-tailed fox who did not vanish, so I doubt you will ever have the power to keep him completely in control. But you’re clever, little kit. I believe you can at least become an eight-tailed fox like me.” Naruto frowned, confused for a moment, only for a smile to grow over his own face as he looked behind Yuki. Yuki was grinning at him, every tooth bared, and behind her eight tails were waving through the wind. “This is the second tail I’ve earned by helping you, little kit,” she purred. “Two after decades of wandering as a six-tail. But it does make sense. After all, you are one of my two greatest triumphs.” There was a glint in Yuki’s eye, then, and she looked Naruto up and down. Within moment, three tails were curling around him and Yuki was pulling them both back towards the shore. “Let’s warm you up,” she murmured, “while I tell you about Fuji.”

Back on the shore, Yuki flopped over into the sand, as comfortable as a cat in a sunbeam, and pulled in Naruto as well to rest against her flank. He was pretty used to that by now, and she was so warm compared to the night air and the ocean damp that he didn’t even argue, he just buried himself against her fur and sighed happily when her tails coiled up around his back. “Who was Fuji?” he asked once he was settled. Yuki was staring at him fondly, and he got the sense she wanted him to ask. Right now, with Yuki warm and reassuring beside him, Naruto would bring her the moon if it made her happy. But instead, for all Yuki’s smile never faded, her eyes became sad and she pulled herself tighter against Naruto. 

“My daughter died when she had two tails.”

Of all the things he’d learned this evening, the idea that Yuki was a mom was the least surprising of all of them. That her kid had died, and the way she sounded saying it, that just brought stupid tears to his eyes. Yuki wasn’t even crying. But here was Naruto, already getting emotional when it wasn’t even his hurt. Just like with Haku. 

“Oh, Naruto,” Yuki whispered, and Naruto tried to hide his face in her fur. “You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met. Don’t hide from me.” Slowly looking back up, he saw Yuki was smiling at him. “This hurt you feel,” she said, so painfully gentle, “is not your shame.” Yuki took a deep breath, and Naruto leaned back against Yuki’s flank, but let his tears fall. It wasn’t comfortable, and his face was all hot and messy, but Yuki really didn’t seem to mind. And, if Yuki said he didn’t need to be ashamed, then he trusted her word more than he believed anyone who’d ever called him a crybaby. 

Yuki was the best shinobi ever. And shinobi weren’t tools. They could feel hurt. 

“You should have gotten to meet her,” Yuki gasped, trembling beneath him. Naruto winced and carded a hand through her fur. She reminded him of how he’d been shaking, many times in his life when he felt scared or alone. “I like to think she would have loved being your sister. But neither of us will ever know what she would have been.” Six of Yuki’s tails waved away to curl in front of her face, and Yuki watched them with an expression Naruto couldn’t read. “Fuji changed everything about me,” she went on. “Bringing her into the world only to lose her was the most painful experience of my life. But I have never held a greater honor than to be a mother. Knowing Fuji has made me into a fox that can love you as mother and son. So, I’m happy.” Yuki’s massive red eyes welled up with tears, but her grin towards Naruto was blindingly bright. “Between you and Fuji, I think that I’m the luckiest fox in the world!”

Naruto was sobbing now, and the only thing he could think to do was to reach up and throw his arm around Yuki’s neck in a hug. In return, Yuki’s tails wove around him as well and, ever so carefully, squeezed him tight. 

There was a whole new space inside of Naruto. Things he’d learned, things he’d let go, and things he’d never imagined he could feel. And the space was shaped like Yuki. 

He loved that space. 

Across the horizon, where the sun had set, a golden flash lit up the sky. The light was beautiful, in Naruto’s opinion. It reminded him of the chakra he’d seen in the Aeorta, in the Kyuubi-tree. 

“Oh no,” said Yuki in a strangled voice. 

The tails around Naruto slithered away as Yuki bounded upright, springing out over the surface of the water as though she was walking on solid ground. Naruto stumbled to his feet as well. Whatever was happening, it was bad. He couldn’t let Yuki face it alone! So he rushed out onto the water as well, and although her stumbled a little, he managed to catch his feet and run to her side.

“What is it?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”

“The Aeorta,” Yuki mumbled, tails thrashing, “It’s been cut off.” Her head whipped around, and she pinned Naruto with a panicked gaze. “We left your arm behind. There must have been just enough chakra inside that the human, if he was clever with seals…” Turning back to the horizon, Yuki finished in a truly terrified voice, “He’s severed the connection between our world and yours.”

“Yuki?” asked Naruto. He heard his own voice as though he was far away. “What does that mean?”

Yuki was immovable at his side. Her size made the ocean’s waves seem tiny. “It means that we cannot get you home. Not without going to the tree and reconnecting our worlds. And if we do not, and the connection stays closed,” she closed her eyes. “Then no more chakra will flow into your world. And everything in the realm of the living will whither away.”

“What the hell…” Naruto breathed. He couldn’t even wrap his mind around the idea. He heard Yuki’s words, and he mostly understood, but what she was telling him…She was saying that Takashi was going to end the world. “Why would he do that?” he shouted. “He- It’s- Everything’s gonna die! Why is this- I don’t- that’s so stupid dattebayo!”

“No,” said Yuki, biting out her words around a growl that was quickly growing louder. “It’s smart. He knows we can’t let you stay here. And he knows we won’t let your home die.” Grimly, Yuki turned to him. “It’s a trap that we have no choice but to walk right into.” 

“Yuki.” The waves beneath them were growing in size and strength. In his panic, somehow Naruto felt still, still enough to stay balanced despite the waves. What Yuki was saying, from what he got, was basically that all of his precious people were in danger. That left only one option for him. Naruto's sole hand clenched into a fist. “So," he asked, "how are we doin' this?”

Yuki’s red eyes were glinting in the starlight. Above and below them, the dark stretched out to the horizon, in the direction of the golden flash. Straight towards Takashi. “So long as the human holds the Aeorta, we are cut off from your world,” Yuki growled. Her grin was sharp where it stretched around her fangs. “It’ll take a real trick to take it back.”


	14. Present

This time, when Naruto climbed up to the railing, he wasn’t alone. Sasuke was a step behind him and visibly fuming. The proctor guy’d had to cut him loose.

Because, duh, Naruto wasn’t dumb enough to get that close.

Unlike the last time Naruto climbed up to the railing, this time he had a welcoming party.

All of his year-mates were close, hovering at the edge of the railing, and between the lot of them Naruto had no idea what the hell was going on. Sakura was hanging back, for some reason, and pinching her nose with white-knuckled fingers. Her upper lip was smeared with blood. But, she didn’t look like she’d been punched or anything, rather she looked completely red in the face. Also, there was a vein twitching under her eye that was totally freaking Naruto out. He decided he’d stay away from that section. Next to Sakura, Hinata was sitting and just sort of gaping at him. He hadn’t actually realized she was so pale, Naruto’d always thought she had pretty, er, rosy skin. 

In the aisle, Kiba was hunched over, howling like a dog. One of his hands was braced on a nearby seat-back, and tears were streaming down his cheeks, but he was managing to stay upright enough to laugh like Naruto hadn’t seen since his early academy pranking days. Shino was standing behind him, and Naruto would’ve said he was as stoic as ever, except his little sunglasses were crooked. Which, that was new. 

In the seats across the aisle, Ino and Chouji were seated side-by-side. Ino had her head between her knees. Chouji was staring, one hand abandoned in a chip bag, at Shikamaru. 

Shikamaru was definitely the most startling. 

The taller boy was biting his lip so hard it looked like it might split. He was still hunched slightly, still had his hands in his pockets, he wasn’t even that much redder than normal. No, the big difference was his eyes. They were sparkling. Their eyes met, and Naruto realized that this, this was Shikamaru looking gleeful. And, when Naruto met his eyes, he realized that Shikamaru was biting down on a smile.

“Naruto,” said Shikamaru, completely ignoring Sasuke stomping away from them and the railing. “Just,” he said, hesitating on a breath only to break into a tiny, sly grin. Something caught deep in Naruto’s chest. “Thank you.”

Naruto frowned. “What for?!” he asked, and he knew he was gaping but Shikamaru had no reason to be thanking him! Shikamaru just smiled wider, and then turned away to the railing.

“Ah, my match is starting,” he moaned. “How troublesome.” As he swung a leg up and over the railing, he turned back for just a moment and smirked at Naruto. “I’ll finish it quickly,” he said, and then he slid around the rail and tipped over into the arena. 

“What the Hell…?” Naruto asked the empty air. 

Something clattered to the ground behind him. Whipping around, Naruto tensed with his fist raised ahead of him. There was no enemy, though. Kakashi-sensei was crouching behind him. His arms were open in the act of releasing an armful of crinkly stuff to pile on the ground at Naruto’s feet.

Naruto stared incredulously into Kakashi-sensei’s eye. For some reason, his sensei seemed to be almost vibrating. Naruto slowly crouched down as well until he was kneeling, too. Kakashi-sensei’s eye followed him lazily. 

Naruto’s knee nudged against something in the pile. At first glance, it appeared to be a water bottle. 

Taking stock of the collection Kakashi-sensei had brought him, Naruto’s incredulity only grew. There were at least five water bottles, all of them different colors and styles, and all of them some measure of half-full. One appeared to have lipstick on the rim. Besides the water bottles, there were bags of crackers, of nuts, of candies, even a bag with a single, half-eaten stick of dango. All of the bags were different materials and colors. Freely placed among the bags and bottles was an unpeeled banana, several kunai, an open box of band-aids with little printed shuriken, and a roll of gauze. 

Naruto looked back up at Kakashi-sensei. The man was still vibrating.

“Sen…sei?” he asked quietly. Kakashi-sensei hummed, only to reach down and snatch up the roll of gauze.

“Give me a foot,” he said. His voice was entirely blank, but Naruto still got the sense that Kakashi-sensei was growling. When Naruto didn’t immediately move, Kakashi-sensei sighed and went on, “I couldn’t find sandals small enough.”

This was, by far, the weirdest thing Kakashi-sensei had ever done, and he read porn in public. Naruto looked him up and down, and for a moment Kakashi-sensei’s dark clothes and flak-vest reminded him so vividly of Takashi that he cringed back. Kakashi-sensei’s eye flickered. 

Naruto was struck with the unwelcome reminder that, if Kakashi-sensei wanted his foot, there was nothing Naruto could do to stop him.

“I lost my shoes, like, forever ago,” Naruto found himself blurting to his silent sensei. He had to sniffle slightly when he felt his eyes start to water. “Pretty stupid, huh?” 

“Maa.” Kakashi’s eye crinkled up into his ‘smiling face’. “I’m not terribly worried about your missing shoes, Naruto.”

“Oh, y-yeah dattebayo.” Naruto was missing an arm. Missing his shoes probably wasn’t as weird to Kakashi-sensei. 

After taking a quick moment to scratch his cheek, Naruto relaxed, leaning back onto his hand so that he could shift until his legs were out from under him. Kakashi-sensei didn’t react at all. Naruto slid one leg out straight towards his sensei. 

“You should drink something,” said Kakashi-sensei. 

Oh, right. His throat was sore. Because he was thirsty. Rolling his eyes, more at himself than anything, Naruto shuffled back to lean against the railing. Reaching down to grab one of the water bottles, Naruto looked away from Kakashi-sensei, content to let the man do whatever had him so riled and get it over with. 

With his head tilted back to drink, Naruto could only watch from the corner of his eye, as Kakashi-sensei reached for his foot. The man grabbed his ankle with one firm, gloved hand and the other raised the roll of gauze. With practiced efficiency, Kakashi-sensei began to wind the gauze around his ankle and down over his heel, pausing occasionally to pull out a piece of tree bark or rock from the sole of his foot. Naruto tried not to move whenever Kakashi-sensei did that, but the man must have felt Naruto’s reflexive yanks through his grip on Naruto’s ankle. Whatever his thoughts on Naruto’s spasms, Kakashi-sensei never wavered until both of his feet were wrapped tight, covered up to the toes. 

As soon as he was done, Kakashi-sensei wordlessly stood and marched away. 

Naruto slumped against the railing and heaved a massive sigh of relief he hadn’t known he was holding in. Kakashi-sensei had always been weird, but this definitely took the cake. Naruto experimentally rolled one ankle. His feet really did feel a lot better. His ankles felt secure in a way entirely new to him, like there wasn’t any way for him to strain them like he had fighting Takashi. It didn’t feel like it would impact his flexibility, and his toes would still make contact with the ground if he needed to activate a seal. So maybe Kakashi-sensei was onto something. 

The stick of dango was closest by. Picking it up, Naruto sniffed it carefully, and then popped all the remaining dango into his mouth. He couldn’t help but moan. 

The summons realm had no sweets. Nothing. He’d missed ramen way more, but this was still pretty awesome.

“Ah!” tensing in his seat, Naruto looked up at the top of the stairs, where Kakashi-sensei was just about to turn a corner and leave Naruto’s line of sight. “Thank you, Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto shouted. The man himself turned his head slightly and shot him an eye-smile and a careless wave. Everyone between him and Kakashi-sensei who wasn’t wearing a shinobi vest twitched violently. 

“Naruto…!” A few seats to his right, Sasuke had turned to him and snarled his name like it was a curse.

Honestly, Sasuke was just about the last person Naruto wanted to deal with right now.

Looking at Sasuke felt like looking at some twisted, sick version of himself. Like looking at the Uchiha-version of the Uzumaki that Takashi had wanted him to be. And it hurt, that Sasuke was so bound up in the pain of losing his family. It hadn’t ever hurt so much before.

So, Naruto tried to be kinder than usual.

“Mmm, what’s up, Sasuke?” he replied, scrunching up his eyes and smiling gamely. Sasuke was sitting next to Sakura, and a seat down from both of them was Team Eight. On the other side of Sakura, across the aisle, two-thirds of Team Ten were watching Naruto closely. Ino was grimacing in a way Naruto hadn’t ever seen before. 

“What’s up!?” Sasuke repeated incredulously. “Your cheap tricks, dobe, have gone too far.” Naruto frowned and idly scratched his cheek. 

“Ano, aren’t cheap tricks, like, the point of shinobi?”

“Shut up!” Sasuke shot up in his seat, and Sakura’s head began turning back and forth between them. She had her fingers intertwined over her sternum, and her usual concerned expression when she looked at Sasuke. “You shouldn’t have come here, dobe. You will never be a shinobi, now. With your weakness...you’ll be dead in a week.”

Indignant rage had Naruto’s chest puffing up, along with his cheeks. But he wasn’t going to blow up that easily. No, Sasuke was going to have to earn it! He took a deep breath, like Yuki had taught him, and settled back into his seat.

“Eh, I think I’m doing better without my left arm. It’s not like I was using it for much, I don’t think. I mean, my taijutsu when I fought Kiba? I kind of sucked,” he said, waving his hand at Sasuke and at Kiba behind him. Behind Sasuke, Kiba jolted in his seat. His puppy whimpered, but Kiba just stared at him, scary still. 

“Idiot,” said Sasuke. He folded his arms over his chest as he stared down his nose at Naruto. “Do you really have no shame? Letting yourself be maimed, and then just pretending you’re not broken. You’re not just pathetic. You’re an embarrassment, dead-last.” Naruto clenched his fist, leaning forward and scowling. Sure, getting maimed was kind of his choice, but he wasn’t an embarrassment. He’d been taught by Yuki, and Sasuke calling him an embarrassment because of his left arm was like spitting on all of the time and care Yuki had put into teaching him to make his loss into a strength!

Faintly, the proctor’s voice echoed up from the arena, saying only “The match goes to Shikamaru Nara! The final match will begin after a fifteen minute intermission!”

“Seriously?” Naruto growled, glaring right into Sasuke’s dead black eyes. “You don’t know a thing about it, teme.” As he spoke, he also rose to his feet. Sasuke rose with him until they were standing, facing each other dead on. Then, Naruto flung out his arm and yanked it back in to point his thumb right at the scarred remnants of his left shoulder, right at the one place the teme refused to look. “This,” Naruto yelled, snarling at Sasuke whose eyes still skittered away from his left side, “this is not my shame!”

Everyone was looking at him, and he was a total wreck right now. He always had been, honestly. But he’d always known how to deal with looks of hatred or fear. He didn’t know how to interpret the widening of Sakura and Sasuke’s eyes. Ino had gone a bit green in the face, and he didn’t think it was rotten food or anything because she wasn’t holding her stomach at all. Hinata seemed to have just crumpled. Not even fainted like usual, just crumpled. Kiba, well, he’d bitten straight through his lip.

Naruto fidgeted out some of his discomfort but kept his eyes on Sasuke.

“I had a choice,” he continued. “My arm, or coming home. I fought hard to come back, because Konoha is where all my precious people call home, too! I’m not ashamed at all! And I never will be!” Naruto let his arm fall, and took in the faces of the people around him. Every eye was on him. Naruto couldn’t tell at all what any of them were thinking. “So don’t ever think that I won’t be a shinobi. I don’t give up that easily, dattebayo.”

Sakura was trembling in her seat, eyes watering. She tried to grab onto Sasuke’s sleeve, but Sasuke-teme wrenched his arm from her, turning on his heel and walking away towards the exit up the stairs. He didn’t look back. Naruto tried to ignore the pang in his chest, to see Sasuke walking away yet again. The hurt was old, anyways, and nothing compared to-

“Fought?”

“Eh?” Naruto whipped around to find the speaker, and saw the kunoichi from Neji’s team hovering behind Ino and Chouji. She was grimacing at him, and Naruto flinched back. She probably wasn’t super pleased about what he’d done to her teammate.

“You said you had to fight to come back,” she prompted again. Naruto got the feeling he was still missing her point, and settled for nodding and shrugging. 

“Well, duh,” he said, “I mean, I didn’t lose my arm by accident!”

“Shikamaru Nara and Naruto Uzumaki, please enter the arena!”

“Oh,” Naruto mumbled, turning around towards the arena, only for his mumble to turn into a yelp of surprise. Shikamaru was directly behind him, on the other side of the railing. His feet were hooked beneath the bottom-most rung, and his chin propped up on the top-most. 

Shikamaru’s eyes were shining. He wasn’t smiling, rather his hands were clenched bloodlessly onto the bars of the railing, but when he looked at Naruto there was something in his eyes that pierced straight through him. Shikamaru was looking at Naruto like he could see everything about him. Like Naruto’s everything made Shikamaru…focused. 

Eyes steady in their search, Shikamaru straightened so that his hands held onto the top rung instead of his chin. He leaned forward just slightly. Naruto hadn't realized he'd stepped closer until Shikamaru's breath puffed against his cheeks. Their faces were an inch apart at most. Naruto’s eyes were crossing trying to see if their noses really were about to brush together. Then Shikamaru blinked, and Naruto looked back up into Shikamaru's wonderfully sharp eyes. Shikamaru held his gaze for a long moment, like he knew he had Naruto trapped. 

Shikamaru smirked. Naruto’s face felt like it was burning. 

“Mmm,” hummed Shikamaru. Then, he leaned back and let go of the rail. Naruto couldn’t bring himself to so much as twitch as Shikamaru fell backwards and vanished into the arena below. 

“I’ll be waiting here when you’re done, Naruto.”

“Ah!” Naruto yelped, turning around. Kakashi-sensei was back. “Don’t startle me-ttebayo!”

“Maa, maa,” Kakashi chirped, waving a hand at him in a ‘shoo’ motion. “Go before I change my mind.”

“Change your mind about what, weird-sensei?” Naruto grumbled, but he obliged with no real complaint. He swung one leg after the other up over the rail to sit on the top rung, but then he stopped and found himself looking up at the sky. The sun was above him. He hadn’t seen the sun rise above the horizon for six months. 

He was tired. Shikamaru wanted to fight him, and Naruto…was curious why. That would have to be enough. Afterwards, then he could deal with this world-after-everything. 

“Naruto!” Kakashi called out again. “Do you have a plan?” Naruto couldn’t help but chuckle. He was so planned-out after his last twenty-four hours or so, it was a wonder he was aware of his surroundings. 

“Nah, Kakashi-sensei, but it’s alright,” he babbled at his droopy sensei. He beamed back at Kakashi over his undamaged shoulder while letting his legs swing back and forth in the open air. “I’m ready.”

Without a glance back, Naruto pushed off and entered the arena for the last time.


	15. Past

He could see her, from the corner of his eye, bare glimpses of white through the shadowed trees. She was too big to join him up in the canopy, so Naruto was running alongside and above her. With every leap between branches, every pulse of chakra to the soles of his feet, he barely kept up with Yuki’s stride. It was more rhythm, now, than sight. The nightfall made the forest too dark to rely on his eyes, and all that was left were his instincts to guide him from one branch to another. His ability to do this, to run and follow even in the dark, even with Yuki hiding all but a sliver of her presence, even going so fast with one less limb than any other shinobi he’d ever seen, he’d never have imagined any amount of training could push him to this. But Yuki had taught him and made it possible. 

She’d had him running through tree branches for weeks on the way to Uzushio. 

He didn’t even think to try and use his absent left arm anymore. His whole body was shifted, and it’d happened so slowly while Yuki jabbed him into shape that it was only now, when he was pushing that speed to the limit, that he really noticed. Noticed how his body curled small and lithe until he was flitting between densely packed branches as swiftly as Yuki. He trusted himself not to fall. Even when he was running in step with an eight-tailed fox. 

And nobody was faster than Yuki. Even when she wasn’t using her fox-fire. 

There was only one problem.

“Yuki,” he called. “There’s cuts on my feet. But they’re not healing!” He’d gotten so used to life without shoes mostly because whenever something like tree-bark dug into his soles they’d just heal up. He’d never had a cut that stayed around so long, not unless he counted Takashi’s creepy-altar-blood-seal thing. 

These little stinging cuts that just kept stinging for whole entire minutes and didn’t stop were weird. And, also, he was kind of scared that the cuts meant there was something wrong with the kyuubi. Yuki’d promised him it couldn’t get out. 

She’d promised. He could trust Yuki.

“Dammit,” came a low growl somewhere to Naruto’s left. “I was afraid this might happen.”

Even as she spoke, her speed increased. Naruto was forced to push himself faster. He ignored the sensitive skin of his soles and reached forward, pushing off from each branch he touched even harder, sacrificing some of his quiet in order to keep up. Yuki hadn’t scolded him for talking, so it was probably okay. 

“What’s goin’ on?” he called roughly into the forest ahead of him. The black silhouette of the Kyuubi Tree could just now be seen, getting close faster and faster and they raced along the horizon.

“The tailed beasts,” said Yuki, not even out of breath which made Naruto so super jealous, “they’re massive pools of chakra. With the Aeorta cut off, there are ripples now radiating throughout your world. Smaller things, shinobi and the like, won’t be affected, but the tailed beasts? They’re going to be unusable for a while. And I don’t think summons will be possible at all.” The note of worry in her voice, when she mentioned summons, had Naruto’s stomach twisting up in knots.

“Dammit,” Naruto spat. Then he flushed, realizing he’d unintentionally echoed Yuki. Well, he guessed they were in agreement. 

“Hah!” Yuki barked. The sound was rougher than normal. The Kyuubi Tree’s roots were visible over the last hill. “Better not get injured, kit!”

To be honest, Naruto was really scared that would happen. That he’d get injured. Because if he got hurt, and Takashi got him, then Konoha was doomed. Just like that. When he’d finally found out what was inside him, he’d been relieved kind of. Finally knowing why everybody hated him, knowing that it wasn’t just because he was that horrible of a person, well. It’d been comforting. 

It’d taken Takashi to teach him just how horrible the thing inside him could be. 

It’d taken Yuki to settle those fears. 

He hadn’t done it yet, but he remembered Wave, he remembered the boiling red and the angry-hurt-desperate feeling. That was just one tail and he’d almost lost it. Now, thanks to Yuki, he could control it.

Now, thanks to Yuki, there was one less way for the kyuubi to hurt anybody.

As if summoned, a kunai split through the canopy and nailed itself through the ground where Yuki had been mere seconds before.

The dark around him became a blur. 

Naruto’s entire body flipped as he was forced to spin over the branch he was still leaping off of, and he went shooting down towards the ground just as a thin shimmer of a hidden wire had him contorting further in the air. He rolled to a stop in a fraction of a second, and as soon as the world righted itself, he saw the wave of white hurtling at him, tails first, and shoved himself out of the way. Yuki’s body slammed into the tree behind where he’d just been. The trunk cracked. 

He was super glad he’d dodged that, dattebayo. 

With a roll of massive muscles beneath fur, Yuki hauled herself to her feet, shaking like a wet dog, and bared her teeth at the figure at the other side of the clearing. Her head brushed against the lowest branches. She was the most awesome, terrifying creature Naruto had ever seen. 

Including Orochimaru’s stupid snake. 

From his spot across the clearing, Naruto could see Takashi wavering beneath Yuki’s gaze. His time in the summons realm had obviously not treated him well. He was a mess. His hitai-ate was dangling from his neck like a noose, and it rose and fell with his panting chest. His face, though, was what freaked out Naruto. His eyes were burning at he stared directly at Yuki. All of his teeth were bared, too. And, stretching the skin around his eyes and mouth, were three parallel scars. Claw marks. 

Looked like Yuki got him good, last time. 

“Vixen!” Takashi bellowed into the dark. The sound felt, to Naruto, like bile rising up his throat to choke him. Takashi’s left foot shifted back a millimeter. 

Naruto shot upwards, his tension making for a spring of energy, directly into the tree above. He felt more than saw Yuki doing the same. Below them, Takashi howled and, too, made to jump into the branches.

“Now, Naruto!” yelled Yuki, and Naruto lunged. His palm slapped against the wood just beside Yuki’s muzzle. Takashi’s eyes widened when he saw thick, black ink spread from Naruto’s palm, without a brush anywhere in sight.

“Fuuin!”

As Naruto shouted, the seal lit bright for just a moment. Then, that small light was eclipsed by the green flames flaring in Yuki’s jaw, only for those flames to catch on the air rocketing from Naruto’s seal and burst along the stream. A massive line of fox-fire caught and flowed from one end of the clearing to the other, and Takashi neatly dodged away just in time. The flame shot past him.

Straight into the tiny light of another seal. 

Like a ricochet from hell, lines of flame interconnected all throughout the trees as one flame caught on the air from the next seal, guiding it to the next and the next, sometimes even splitting off and multiplying the spider’s web of fox fire emanating from Yuki’s gaping maw. Even as Takashi leapt back and away, crouching in a patch of ground merely surrounded by flames rather than covered, Yuki’s tails swept forward, a brush curled in each one.

The eight tails moved in perfect synchronicity in front of her flaming maw. Each one scrawled a separate section of seal, creating something almost as large as that first seal Naruto had seen in Takashi’s living room in a fraction of the time it must have taken Takashi. The lines of ink hovered in midair as Yuki wrote. Naruto didn’t think he’d ever seen something so beautiful. Especially when the orb of green flame caught on the center of the seal and stayed, lighting the entire array bright white and allowing Yuki and Naruto to turn away and run in the direction of the tree, even as the web remained to beam brilliant green streaks through the dark of night. 

“Beautiful fuuinjutsu, Naruto,” Yuki praised. Her massive red eye caught his own from where she was sprinting to his right. Naruto could swear he was glowing a little inside. Any fears Takashi had dredged up in him were fading away. “Are you ready for part two?”

There was really only one answer to that. “Hell yeah!”

Naruto sped into a dead sprint, a speed he couldn’t hold for long, but only needed for a few seconds. He grit his teeth in a smile against the wind beating his face as he veered off towards Yuki. The tree trunks were a blur around them, but Yuki was clear by his side, making it easy to reach his arm up to her closest shoulder. She was so low to the ground, racing ahead faster than wind, that he could just barely make it. He pushed chakra into the soles of his feet and jumped, right as Yuki veered towards him. He fell onto the broad plains of her back, yet the speed they were going made it feel like floating. Twisting to the side, he grabbed onto Yuki’s fur as he pulled his legs up from her sides, letting all his weight hang from his hand. Then, staring down her spine to her tails, he let go. 

Yuki’s fur slid from between his fingers in a heartbeat. He, too, shot down the length of her body, directly into the waiting grip of her tails. Even as they grabbed him, Yuki spun on her back heel and Naruto’s world whirled around him as Yuki’s sharp pivot rocketed him all the rest of the way to the Kyuubi Tree. 

He landed crouched on his feet and hand. He didn’t have to take the time to balance before he was upright and running, slamming his hand into the tree knot which would let him inside.

The door slid open, leaving a black cavern with fox fire just sparking to life at the edges. Naruto shot inside, but he couldn’t help but stop at the threshold. He turned back. Just for a moment.

Yuki was arcing through the air like an arrow. Her jump brought her above the trees, and below her Takashi looked like a smudge of dirt. Her whole body soared as though weightless, until at the very apex of her jump, Yuki curled her whole body inwards, turning to face her forepaws and gaping jaws straight down to the ground. Towards Takashi.

She dropped like a shooting star.

Her front paws slammed into the ground, and the blast of air forced Naruto back several steps. He could feel the earth rumbling through his bones. In rings around Yuki, the ground crunched inwards, as though the mass of Yuki had tripled. Her hindlegs and tails stayed in the air for a long moment, pointed into the sky like a tower, before they, too, fell, and each of her lashing eight tails sliced the trees near them straight through. They toppled around her into the wreckage of her landing. 

All the while, Yuki’s barking laughter rang through the air like thunder. 

Naruto startled as the door snapped shut in front of him, leaving only blank darkness. The song of Yuki’s laughter vanished. Inside the tree, everything was silent. 

“Wow,” Naruto whispered. He slowly unclenched his fist, and lowered it from where he’d unknowingly raised it to hover beneath his chin. He shook his head through the sound of his blood pumping in his ears. Yuki’s white and red and awesome seemed burned onto the backs on his eyelids. “Fwah! She’s so cool-ttebayo,” he whispered again, even though it was swallowed easily into the dark. 

Speaking of the dark, Naruto turned to look carefully around him. The tree looked the same as last time. Pitch black, with little green stars of fox-fire. But Yuki had warned him heavily and often of what he might expect when he got here. Naruto wasn’t going to let his guard down for a moment!

“So,” he called into the dark. “If I was a massive dumbass with a weird thing for me, where would I put my traps?”  
*****  
“Heh.” Chuckling under his breath, Naruto pulled the last loop of ninja-wire from the end of the kunai and laid it gently on the ground. “Underneath the underneath…eat your heart out, Kakashi-sensei.”

Takashi had been pretty stupid about where he put his traps. As in, he put them absolutely everywhere. Since there were traps everywhere, that meant he’d obviously had to leave a way to disarm them so that he could come back later for his stupid Konoha-destroying plan. And, if Takashi could disable the traps, then Naruto could disable them in half the time with just one hand. 

So, he’d gone ahead and done that. 

The fox-fire sparks had been super helpful, hovering nearby so he could see what he was doing. They had led him all the way up the tree to the doorway. Time was kind of hard to count, here, but it felt like he’d managed to work quickly. 

He had to be fast. Unless Yuki told him otherwise, he had to assume Takashi was on his tail. 

“Here we go,” he whispered. Around him, the fox-fire sparks bobbed in the air like they agreed. Naruto glanced down at a spark near his hand. 

Huh. He’d lost a fingernail. He couldn’t even remember when it happened. It was still bleeding a little. 

When Naruto got home, he was never going to forgive Takashi. Not for his stupid plans, not for being so gross, and not for everything he’d done to Naruto. It was weird, but something Yuki told him was ringing in his ears. Something like, that he deserved control over his body and his chakra, because he deserved control over himself. Takashi had, on every level, tried to take that away.

Naruto turned his palm towards himself, and carefully rested the back of his hand against the doorway. 

Just as swiftly as it took for him to feel his fingertip sting from the pressure, the doorway vanished. Blinding light spilled through the entryway.

Naruto reached up and grabbed his left shoulder tight before stepping inside. 

The Aeorta wasn’t golden anymore. The chakra inside the glass tree was, instead, a blood-red, and bubbling harshly. The feeling was the same, though, for Naruto. The feeling of belonging, of being a part of whatever was in there. The feeling of the red chakra was pulsating, and the seal on his stomach and the small of his back was pulsating in sync with the Aeorta. He could feel the two streaks up his back, his two tails. 

He was really, really hoping he didn’t grow actual tails from his butt, dattebayo. 

Naruto looked around one last time, but the central chamber was surprisingly empty. His eyes fell to the altar where he’d been bound. The sliced leather restraints had been replaced. The blood had not been washed off. 

Naruto grimaced and stuck out his tongue a little. Takashi was such a creepy bastard; he was totally beating out Orochimaru so far as Naruto was concerned. 

Taking a deep breath, Naruto shook himself and turned back to the Aeorta. Yuki had taught him exactly what to do, and he had to hurry up and follow the plan, just in case her fight went wrong. So, Naruto leapt across to the room to the Aeorta.

The pulsing, of the red chakra, his seal, his tails, got stronger.

“Yeah, yeah,” Naruto mumbled. “I get it, yeesh. Kyuubi chakra likes kyuubi chakra, chill out so I can work!” The pulses ignored him. Naruto huffed and pulled out his fuuinjutsu brush from his storage seal scroll. Yuki’d made it for him, and now that the brush was pulled out, the seal and the paper shriveled away into dust. 

Naruto raised the brush to the glass trunk of the Aeorta. He placed it gently, not too much pressure but just enough to make a clean, unfrayed line of ink. Ever so carefully, Naruto pulled the brush through a spiral, a spiral around the first, a spiral around that, until he had a perfectly circular whirlpool etched onto the Aeorta. There wasn’t a single mistake in the base of his seal. The chakra flowed unbroken. Naruto couldn’t help but smile.

Then, behind the glass, a rotting arm floated forward from the depths of the chakra and bobbed behind the beginning of his seal. 

“Eeeeugh!” 

He couldn’t help but shriek. It was the grossest, most disturbing thing he’d ever seen. The chakra must have been preserving it, somewhat, because it wasn’t so much rotting as it was eroding. Bile coated the back of Naruto’s throat. 

Sighing heavily, Naruto scratched ruefully at his whisker-marks and tried to ignore the arm as best as he could. The rest of the seal was going to take ages to write. 

Naruto raised his brush and began the first matrix. 

Something about fuuinjutsu always had Naruto losing time. He fell into the work, like his brain fit the patterns he was writing so well that there wasn’t room for anything other than clarity and ink. Yuki’d said he’d need to learn better how to use seals in combat while he was distracted, and that’s why she’d taught him how to write his simple air-storage seal with just his palm and his chakra. She said it took a lot of chakra to write seals that way, and a complete understanding of how the seal worked inside and out. She also said that he had so much chakra that she’d feel weird if she didn’t teach him how to make good use of it. Something about stagnating, and flashy, simplistic, ninjutsu-flinging shinobi with no sense of art. 

At that point, Naruto usually tuned her out and kept his eyes on his fuuinjutsu. He wasn’t totally over losing his shadow clone jutsu. The only reason he wasn’t freaking out more was because, somehow, he was a better shinobi now with one less arm and broken chakra. 

Yeah, it made next to no sense to Naruto. He credited it mostly to Yuki’s teaching skills. 

“You’ve gotten a lot better at that.”

“Whah!?” Jerking back instinctively to keep his brush away from the seal, Naruto spun around. Standing framed in the doorway was Takashi. 

The man was leaning his shoulder up against the doorframe to prop himself up. Dirt seemed caked into every surface on his body, all but for his hitai-ate which, inexplicably, was still shining. As if noticing Naruto’s thoughts, Takashi tucked his chin into his chest and looked down at the loop of fabric and metal plate. 

“Oh,” he said. “Right.” Takashi pulled away from the doorframe, then, and Naruto tensed. All Takashi did, though, was reach up and pull the hitai-ate up and over his head. The hitai-ate slid down his hand, dangling just on his fingertips before falling to the floor in a heap. 

“H-hey,” said Naruto, and he scowled when his voice stuttered in the face of this man. “H-how about you get out of here, yanno? You don’t belong here at all dattebayo!”

“Neither do you,” Takashi replied, raising an eyebrow at Naruto, as if Naruto was trying to get into a shop that didn’t serve demon brats like him. 

Naruto puffed out his cheeks and snarled. “I do too belong! Why’d’ya think you need my blood to get in, huh? Wait…” Naruto searched Takashi up and down until his eyes caught on a scrap of orange clutched in Takashi’s fist. “You’ve been holding onto my blood this whole time?” He couldn’t help but grimace. “Gross!”

“Well, you leave it laying around all over the place. So.” Takashi shrugged. His gaze fixed onto Naruto’s stomach. There was a cold shiver running up Naruto’s spine, seeing the obsession in Takashi’s eyes. 

“Eh-eto,” he stuttered. “I’m not gonna let you hurt Konoha. So, you better leave, dattebayo! Before I kick your ass!”

Takashi swayed where he was standing, eyes not so much as flickering away from Naruto’s kyuubi-seal. He took a step forward, and Naruto pressed himself back, only to hit against the Aeorta and flinch away. 

The glass trunk hadn’t felt super solid, just then.

“I’m glad you came, Naruto,” said Takashi, walking forward one deliberate step after the other. The altar with its leather restraints and blood-spattered stone was all that stood between them. “I knew you would. You’re just that kind of person.”

In a flash, Takashi’s knee dug into his gut, flinging him across the room. Upon landing, Naruto promptly turned onto hand and knees to throw up. He’d barely moved away from his sick-up when a foot planted against his back and pinned him to the floor. 

“Gerroff!” he shouted. His fingernails scraped against the floor as he tried to move, and he dug his toes in against the ground as well, thrashing his legs against a seemingly immovable weight. The floor muffled him, but he could hear Takashi perfectly as the shinobi began to mumble to himself, as though by habit.

“I’m starting to wonder,” he muttered, leaning down to grab Naruto’s hair in his fist and begin dragging him by it, “if you’re right at all to be Hokage of the new world. If Konoha hasn’t ruined you yet, the fox certainly completed the job.” 

Naruto could barely turn his head. Takashi’s grip was so tight it felt like his scalp was ripping out. He was being dragged so his bent knees were just hovering above the floor, but for all he dug in his heels Takashi just yanked him along even harder. He clawed at Takashi’s skin with his right hand, losing another fingernail into Takashi’s skin. All the while he was screeching at the top of his lungs. Takashi didn’t react to any of it. 

“You’re missing an arm and everything…I don’t think I can fix that. It’s quite the weakness, mmm, you probably shouldn’t be a shinobi at all…”

“Sheesh!” Naruto shouted, trying to drown out Takashi’s demented muttering. “Can you lay off the arm, already? You’re the only one freaking out about it! I can still beat your ass, or anybody’s!” To prove his point, Naruto kicked a leg up as high as it would go, toes grazing Takashi’s vest. Takashi, seemingly reflexively, grabbed Naruto’s ankle. Feeling the leverage, Naruto moved instinctively.

Swinging up his second leg, Naruto used Takashi’s grip to pull his entire body upside-down against Takashi just long enough to clench the bend of his knee around Takashi’s neck. The man immediately let go, of both his leg and his hair, and Naruto had a high-pressure air seal slapped onto the man’s chest so fast that his head was spinning even before he was blasted away.

Naruto hit one wall, rolling to a stop against it. Takashi crashed into the opposite, slamming his feet into it first as if to jump off, only to be crushed backwards by the pressure of the seal. The man slammed a hand against his chest, and he wasn’t a fuuinjutsu master for nothing, so Naruto did not pause to watch before he sprinted away just in time for Takashi’s fist to slam against the wall where Naruto had been mere moments before.

Naruto jumped away to the other side of the room, of the Aeorta, expecting Takashi to follow. When he did not do so, Naruto felt his first pang of real, freezing terror. He was shaking as he turned back to peer around the glowing ruby of the trunk.

Takashi hadn’t moved. He was staring down at the ground between his knees, where he was brushing the final lines onto a forearm’s diameter seal. 

“Shit!” Naruto yelped. 

A dark cloud of something like smoke billowed from the center of the seal, rapidly spreading throughout the chamber. Takashi bounded into the air and stuck to the Aeorta, whereupon he crouched and stared down at Naruto like a vulture staring at a corpse. 

Naruto looked back at the cloud, now at least twice as big since he last looked. His number one priority instantly became ‘avoid breathing in whatever that is’. 

He launched himself at the nearest wall, sticking by his hand and feet, only to look up right along the blade of an approaching kunai. He ran along the wall as fast as he could. Every kunai thrown from the center of the room missed him by a hair, even though Naruto knew for certain he wasn’t going fast enough for Takashi to be missing him from barely half a room away. 

Naruto was forced further down the wall by the next series of kunai, and he growled from deep in his throat. 

If Takashi wanted Naruto on the floor so badly, then Naruto would happily oblige. 

As he dodged the next kunai, Naruto scanned the ground not yet covered by the growing cloud. Just at the edges, a glimmer of black and white shone from the edges of the gas, only to be swallowed up, but Naruto already knew where it was. 

That was all he needed. 

Taking a deep breath, Naruto shot himself in a straight line to his fuuinjutsu brush, feeling Takashi’s last kunai graze the back of his calf as Naruto changed trajectories unexpectedly. Naruto fell into the cloud of smoke, and for how not-visible his hand was, he was confident Takashi wouldn’t see him either. He swept his hand across the floor in the softest arc he could manage, and when his fuuinjutsu brush knocked against the edge of his hand he nearly let out his held breath in relief. 

Grabbing the brush, Naruto threw himself several meters away, just to throw Takashi off if he decided to play with kunai again. Then, he started drawing his own seals blindly onto the wooden floor.

Air storage seals, with no time limit and no space limit, would try to suck in all of the air in the world all at once. In trying, they’d either kill the shinobi who activated the seal by chakra drain, or explode. Naruto didn’t know if what he wanted to try would work at all, or blow up in his face. But, he wasn’t likely to run out of chakra. And he was almost out of air. 

Naruto drew his seals in a foot-wide circle, all facing inwards to a central point. Their areas overlapped, forcing only a section of air to fall under their directions of where to pull from. Their trigger, as Naruto wrote it, was to activate when any other seal activated within their range.

In the center of his circle, he slammed down his palm and activated the air storage seal he’d learned for the forest. 

The world cracked. 

Naruto could hear something like thunder, if thunder was in a single, tiny room and happening from a few feet away, over and over and over. He screamed against his will, planting his palm against his right ear and his shoulder against the left. It did almost nothing to help. Naruto pried open his eyes. 

The cloud of gas was all but gone, only a thin stream pulling from Takashi’s seal into Naruto’s. Takashi was on the ground across the floor from both seals, also clutching his ears. He wasn’t breathing right. His ears were bleeding. 

Naruto shimmied across the floor on his chest, pushing with his knees. He went for Takashi’s gas seal first, and with no better option he opened his jaw wide and scraped his teeth against the ink. Either it would blow up, or it would deactivate. 

After a moment, Naruto still had teeth. So, apparently the seal had deactivated. 

Reaching his own seal was much easier. It seemed to be sucking him in. As soon as his toes brushed against the central seal, he deactivated it with his chakra.

The noise stopped. 

“Fucking…” Naruto gasped, heaving sweet, fresh air into his lungs. “…love!...Fuuinjutsu.”

“Me too, little fox.”


	16. Past

The tableau was everything and nothing like the first time they met.

Above them all, dark red chakra slowly pumped upwards through the glass branches of the inner tree. The light cast them all bloody red, and all bloody reds deep black. Yuki, with her snow-white fur and blood-red marks, all set around hand-length fangs and glaring red eyes, looked to Naruto like an avenging demon.

Her shoulders were hunched up above her head. When she prowled forward, they swayed dangerously in time with her tails. Something spattered against the floor beneath her, something thick and dark, and when it touched the floor it began to steam.

The fur on Yuki’s chest looked wet, in the dim light.

“Yuki!” Naruto shouted, propping himself up quickly onto his elbow. “Are you okay?”

Yuki chuckled like the roll of far-off thunder. Her lips pulled further back from her teeth.

“I’m lovely, Naruto,” she purred. “The wretch barely grazed me.”

“How?” moaned Takashi, from his spot on the floor. He was staring up at Yuki in horror, and his legs began to pump against the wood beneath him, trying to push back and away from Yuki. “Y-you, this isn’t right! I bound you against an explosion seal with the power to level a building!”

“Neh, Naruto. I think it’s time for a lesson,” said Yuki, her eyes never once leaving Takashi. “Did you know Chakra can be solid? So solid, it can even be pushed from the body. The chakra must be both solid, yet also something that flows.” Yuki finally turned away from Takashi, and she shot him a gleeful look from the corner of her eye. “That seal of yours, that binds your chakra inside of you, it can’t keep solid chakra inside, so long as there is an opening. Like, say, the broken chakra pathways of your left arm.”

“No,” Takashi muttered, “she can’t, she must be lying, there’s no way…”

Yuki rattled her head back and forth, grinning all the while. “I need to go finish the seal for reconnecting our plains of existence. Can you try out your new technique on the human, for a while?”

“A-Ah,” Naruto stuttered. Yuki shot him a wink and leapt up onto the Aeorta, brushes appearing in her eight tails. Her hind legs bunched beneath her, and she vanished into the boughs of the Kyuubi-Tree. “But I don’t get it!” Naruto screamed up after her.

“You’re a fox, Naruto!” she yelled down to him. “Fox-fire is yours!”

“Don’t you dare,” Takashi growled, pointing to him with a kunai. He was pushing himself up onto his feet, and Naruto quickly moved to do the same. Everything ached, especially his chakra pathways from the control and effort needed to write seals without ink.

His chakra always felt like it was resonating within him. It could burn, or boil, or overflow, or lash back against him, but it was always there.

He wasn’t stupid. The chakra even just inside this tree was only so dense as to make a liquid. The amount of chakra and effort it would take to make something solid? Naruto couldn’t even imagine just how much chakra that would take.

Staring at the Aeorta, Naruto thought of the green sparks that had guided him here. That all felt like home, that all resonated with something within him, that all welcomed his touch.

The feeling of the fox fire within him.

_Life and Death_  
_Yin and Yang_  
_Ink and Space_  
_Physical and Spiritual_  
_Shadow and Light_

Naruto knew three things for certain. He had a ridiculous amount of chakra. The strength to wield that chakra came from his wish to protect his precious people.

And Yuki believed he could do it!

He twisted his hand into the sign of combat, and chakra rang through the air.

The spectral chakra poured from the remnants of his left arm in a sweeping spike, blinding gold at the center and only flickering with green flames at the edges of each link. Links, because of course, because the chakra had to be solid but it also had to flow. The chain rolled down his body like a wave from the ocean, and each link against the next spun against the other without the slightest bend, without the slightest sound.

Naruto looked back up as Yuki whooped in glee from somewhere high above them. He couldn’t stop smiling! His knees were shaking just from the effort to make this single tiny chain, and he was uncomfortably aware of the frayed edges of his chakra coils where the chain emerged, but he’d done it.

Takashi was still and silent, staring blankly at Naruto’s chakra chain. His eyes were shiny. Naruto was disturbed to realize that Takashi looked as if he was going to cry.

“Uzu…” Takashi whispered. Then his eyes set, and he lunged straight at Naruto.

The chain flicked upwards like moving a limb, nothing like his left arm but disconcertingly close. He curled it up and around himself instinctively, in tandem with his right arm raising in a guard before his neck and torso. The chain caught Takashi first. The man collided into the chakra as though it were a solid wall, a burning wall, and strips of his shirt smoldered away within seconds. Takashi leapt backward immediately, but Naruto was already pushing against him.

Between Takashi’s own jump and the pressure of the chains, the man was launched against the opposite wall. He left a dent. His head snapped back against the wood with a satisfying crack.

“I’ll kill you,” Takashi growled. It was a lot less threatening with him talking through the blood from his split lip. Takashi was forced to peel himself out of the wall one limb at a time. Naruto wasn’t sure, but it looked like Takashi was keeping his weight off of his right leg. Naruto took a careful step back, but as soon as he moved Takashi’s furious eyes snapped up to Naruto. “For using that technique, I’ll kill you!” he screamed.

Takashi came back at him again, this time bearing down from above with a kunai at the ready. Naruto spun, twirling the chain around himself like a wave. Takashi’s kunai slammed against the arc of links with a metallic shrill and a shower of green sparks. The man flew backwards again, and this time when he fell against the floor Naruto could tell that the cracking noise came from bone. Naruto had to smile at the sound, even as his vision blurred at the edges and the chain snapped back into his body.

For the first time in his life, Naruto felt something almost like having less chakra than usual. It made him light-headed, and his left shoulder was burning like it was full of senbon. One of Naruto’s legs buckled, and he went down onto one knee as the chamber swayed around him.

Then his view of the chamber was gone, because from one moment to the next, Takashi became all Naruto could see. The man bore him to the ground with his entire body. Naruto had to gasp in pain, feeling a rigid arm at his throat, legs constricting his sides, a heavy weight in his chest. “You’ve sullied it!” Takashi bellowed, before something slammed into Naruto’s temple. Through a blur, he could see Takashi readying his fist a second time. “You’ve ruined the Uzumaki,” He punched again, “with your fox bullshit!” Another punch, something wet was dripping into his eye. “Filthy!” A blurred fist. The back of his head slammed against the floor. “Demon!” The arm at his throat became a hand, and Naruto couldn’t breathe. “Brat!”

He was gonna die. He was crying, everything hurt, his hand was scrabbling against Takashi’s vest and he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t breathe. Takashi’s fingers were digging into the softest parts of his throat, and his hand was just so big and rigid it might as well have been a cinderblock. Then, the hand relaxed enough that Naruto could suck in a gasp of air, and Naruto rapidly blinked, trying to bring the world back into focus. The pain in his lungs receded along with the haze over his view.

“Oh.” Naruto was still dazed, but upon Takashi’s exclamation of surprise he made the effort to follow Takashi’s line of sight. Takashi was staring up into the branches of the tree. The man’s face went pale. “Shit.”

The hand around his throat hoisted him upright, and a second hand clamped down on his left shoulder only to spin him around. Naruto fell back against Takashi’s chest, toes dangling from the floor, supported only by the arm clamped around his waist.

That, and the cold metal digging into his throat.

Naruto couldn’t bring himself to feel even a twitch of fear, though, because in that same moment Yuki descended.

She landed across the room from them with a weight she couldn’t possibly posses, a gravity that shook the entire chamber, and likely the entire tree. Green flames were steaming from between her fangs once again, only now accompanied by a steady drip of blood down her lip to splatter against the floor alongside the blood dripping from her chest. The wet of the blood dampened down her fur, only emphasizing the massive bones and bow-string chords of muscle beneath. Her red eyes glimmered in the darkness, pinned onto the man behind Naruto. Her pupils, despite the low light, were mere slits of void.

“Kitsune,” said Takashi, voice rumbling through his chest into Naruto’s bruised back, “I can extract the Kyuubi from the kid, or from his corpse. If you want him to come out alive, then reconnect the Aeorta and leave.”

Yuki’s eight tails, always swaying and curling around each other, froze.

“Naruto-” she started to say. The blade immediately dug into Naruto’s throat, and a drip of hot blood ran down Naruto’s neck, soaking into his worn-out tank top.

“No more tricks,” Takashi grit out. The metal beneath Naruto’s jaw was nearly vibrating. There was no killing intent in the air, no pain in the hold Takashi had on his chest and arm. Yet, Naruto felt that, perhaps, he and his home had never been in so much danger in the time he’d been alive.

Since the day he’d been born, in fact.

Yuki’s stare turned to Naruto. He caught her gaze and it took everything he had not to struggle and scream. She didn’t look scared at all. All he could find in her eyes was sadness, and warm adoration.

“Yuki, don’t-!” Naruto gasped, but Takashi pressed the blade in harsh against the pulse at the side of his neck. He couldn’t move. The kyuubi couldn’t heal him, now. And, if he died, Konoha did, too.

Yuki’s massive head bowed down.

“Good,” Takashi spat, but Yuki wasn’t finished.

Pulling in her hind legs, Yuki sat primly in her place across the chamber. Her spine was rigid and straight, and none of the strain of the wound on her chest showed in her stoic regard over Takashi and Naruto. She blinked, long and only once. Her eyes never left Naruto’s.

“There once was a time when nine cursed beings roamed our world. They blackened the skies with their pain.”

Her voice echoed throughout the chamber. Only Yuki’s tails moved, waving through the air, ever-curling and twisting and twitching, except, Naruto frowned in confusion. Because only six tails were waving through the air.

“So we sealed them deep into the earth, so deep they sprouted up out the other side,” she said. Naruto could feel his own two tails steadily warming against his skin and beginning to move, back and forth over his spine as if in time with Yuki’s.

“We do not worship our Gods for their hatred, pointless and unending,” she called across the chamber to him. “We worship them for staying trapped, and reminding us all what awaits those who would become Gods themselves.”

Her eyes shut.

“Sometimes, you have to fight a battle you know you can’t win.”

When she opened her eyes again, her feral gaze locked back onto Takashi. The man’s gut tensed against Naruto’s back, and the arm around his torso began to shake, the hand on his arm growing slick with sweat.

“When we met, I promised you I would rend the flesh from your bones,” she growled more than said to the man behind Naruto. Her lips pulled back from her fangs, and Naruto’s heart expanded in his chest. He began to grin, baring his fangs just like Yuki. “Human,” she growled, deep and thunderous so the whole chamber vibrated with her voice, “You will never again touch the Kyuubi. You will never again touch this tree. And you will never again touch my son!”

Takashi pulled sharp against the kunai, and Yuki’s two hidden tails slapped against the ground.

Gravity reversed.

Naruto was torn away from Takashi as he fell sideways, only for gravity to curve and throw him upwards, then around again, until up and down lost all meaning. Yuki flashed in and out of his vision as he spun, but the blazing green light from her maw followed him, brightening and brightening against his eyes until he had to close them and curl his arm around his face.

It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds that he was yanked through the ever-warming fox-fire spreading through the room. Yuki’s roar sounded from all around him, and Takashi’s defiant yell was pathetic in comparison. Never once as he fell did he touch a single solid thing. All he could feel was Yuki’s vital chakra. Whatever she was doing, Naruto was absolutely certain that she’d won.

When the light faded away, Gravity switched one last time. Naruto felt as though he was being smacked downwards by a giant hand for how heavy he’d suddenly become. He opened his eyes in a panic, seeing the ground rushing towards his face, only for white fur to blanket his vision as he was caught by a familiar cluster of tails. Two massive thuds beat through the room as Yuki dropped to the ground and broke the wood around her. Naruto thought it looked as though the chamber could no longer support her weight, as though gravity had multiplied. As soon as Yuki touched the ground, though, the excess pull towards the earth ended. Naruto’s every muscle untensed.

Two rings were pressed into the floor of the chamber. One around Yuki, where she’d landed effortlessly on her paws and used her tails to cushion Naruto as well. The other was around Takashi, whose face was still planted into his dent with the rest of him.

The tails around Naruto lowered him down until his toes reached the floor, and then they pulled back to weave around their owner. Without them, Naruto took a minute to balance. He experimented with a few wobbly steps forward.

“Awesome,” he said, “You’ve got to teach me that dattebayo!”

When Naruto regained his balance, he readied his nerves to straighten and look back at Takashi, waiting to see what the man would pull next. But, when he looked up, he saw the man was still where he’d landed. And for good reason. Seeing the result of Yuki’s technique, bile rose up the back of Naruto’s throat.

“My hands!” Takashi screeched, crouched in the dented ground where Yuki had left him. “What have you done to my hands?!”

Naruto stared in reverent horror at Takashi, who rose to his feet and began stumbling through the chamber, his trembling hands hovering in front of his face. The skin was blackened in bruise-like lines along tendons and veins, and such wretched tremors were rattling them that Naruto found it a wonder his whole arms weren’t shaking. As he watched, a slice of skin and tissue sloughed away from Takashi’s wrist. Another soon followed from the edge of Takashi’s jaw.

Beside him, Yuki barked out a single laugh, and then, graceful and solemn as a felled tree, collapsed heavily onto her side.

“Yuki!” he screamed, racing forward. She was so massive that even lying on her side like this she was taller than him, long enough to force him to run around the curve of her back to reach her face. Once he got there, he went down hard onto his knees, scraping his hand through the fur on her head, staring into her lidded red eyes.

“Ah,” she moaned, “I’d hoped to kill him for you.”

Her lips were quivering away from her teeth, her eyes squinting shut as if she was in pain. Naruto was shaking, his blood running cold as his seal and his tails went hot. Even as a single tail emerged from him, though, his eyesight tinting red, he stayed at her side. He was in control, still. And nothing would move him away from Yuki.

Between her teeth, green flames began to flicker, licks of light rising like smoke from the corners of her mouth. Slowly, as though a great weight had settled upon her, she raised her head and stared up into the boughs of the Aeorta, of the Kyuubi-tree.

Naruto gasped and looked down as something flickered against his fingers. Beneath his hand, the feeling of her fur was fading away into more memory than sensation. The red chakra - the kyuubi chakra - coating his fingers could still feel her, though, even when his hand couldn’t. Green flames were burning against his own bubbling red. They settled together as though they were the same, not opposites. Not one hateful against one kind, one smothering against one aflame.

She felt like fox-fire.

“I understand, now, why nine-tailed foxes are never seen again,” she whispered. “It takes a real trick, to beat death. A trick worth dying for.”

Naruto was running his hand up and down her chest, now, following the feeling of fox-fire chakra against his own chakra cloak. He couldn’t find the wound, nothing at all that he could try to fix, try to press down on to hold Yuki together for just a moment longer!

Instead, he glanced away and saw her tails. They weren’t even visible, anymore, beneath the brilliant green of fox-fire.

All nine of them.

“Naruto,” Yuki called for him. Naruto returned his hand to the fur of her cheek. A single red eye was staring at him, scrunched at the edges with pure warmth. She looked at him for a moment, the edges of her face breaking away into rising sparks like any other fox-fire inside of the Kyuubi-tree. She met his eyes with her own, and held them for as long as she could.

“My kind little fox,” she whispered.

And then her jaw was opening, gaping wide into a maw of flame, a beacon of fox-fire which shot forward to the Aeorta, to Naruto’s half-finished seal, and shattered against it. Deep beneath the trunk of the glass tree within a tree, a sphere of gold spiraled and began to grow. Gold, flickering green just at the edges.

The outline of Yuki hauled herself to her feet. She towered above Naruto. Her nine tails, each so bright with fox-fire that they, too, held cores of gold, raised into the air behind her. And Yuki laughed.

Her laughter rang throughout the tree as Yuki grew and grew, expanding at the edges so quickly that her edges became more of an outline than a physical form, passing through Naruto and Takashi and the Aeorta alike. Chakra was exploding outwards, and Naruto felt warmth against his cheeks. Distantly, like a dream, he could hear Takashi screaming.

Yuki’s translucent form rose up onto hind legs, and swept upwards, vanishing into the boughs of the Kyuubi-tree, until only laughter and sparks remained.

The room darkened as both faded away. Only the Aeorta remained to light the chamber.

From where Yuki’s chest had been just a moment before, a perfectly clean kunai clattered to the ground. Naruto’s chakra cloak sputtered out.

Yuki had been right there in front of him. There was a ring in the wood where she’d sealed away the limits of gravity. Four shattermarks were in the place of her paws. He could still feel her warmth on his cheeks, on his whiskers, like he had his face pressed against her belly. He’d slept buried in her fur every night for months. She should be right there in front of him.

Naruto raised his hand to his face. His cheeks were wet. Something jerked inside his chest, and wrenched through him as a sob. After one, more followed, unrelenting and uncontrollable. His chest burned for how he couldn’t catch his breath, his stomach churned for how his arm curled tight around it, his forehead ached for how he bent in half to press it against the floor.

His sobbing paused for just a moment, just long enough for him to take a deeper breath, and Naruto began to scream.

He screamed until he thought his heart would burst.

It might have been minutes or hours later. His sobs were more like hiccups. He didn’t want to stop crying. Now that he wasn’t screaming, wasn’t jamming his skull against the floor, the pain in his chest had nowhere to go. He didn’t have the energy to even express his pain, though. It felt like a betrayal, that he couldn’t even muster the energy to let the world know that everything was wrong. That they’d all lost something precious. That Yuki was…she was…

Dead.

Naruto’s forehead stuck slightly to the wood beneath him as he pulled away. His eyelashes felt heavy. He couldn’t breathe through his nose. His arm was cramping. His knees ached.

He sat up and forced himself to look around.

The gold chakra in the Aeorta was continuing to grow. There wasn’t yet much, but it was enough to lighten the room. The red overcast was fading away into a weak film of sunlight, as though from a sunrise that had only just begun.

The kunai from Yuki’s chest, the kunai that had killed her, was on the ground in front of him. Naruto absently picked it up. The metal was cool in his scraped, bloody palm. Soothing, even. He’d know it was a kunai made in Konoha with his eyes closed. If he’d just been a little bit stronger, Takashi might’ve never gotten the chance to bury it into Yuki.

“I can’t use fuuinjutsu. Your fox ruined my hands. So, I suppose this is the end of my dream.”

Takashi was standing, now, albeit leaning heavily on one leg. The new light from the Aeorta made his vest look green again, his scars pink again, his skin pale again. His vest was hanging open over his irregularly heaving chest. Naruto swallowed down the taste of salt in the back of his throat. It came right back up again.

Naruto braced his fisted hand against the floor. The tip of the kunai left a tiny scratch in the wood. He levered himself to his feet, unable to make himself care much at all about the stinging cut on his calf, the strain in his ankle, the burn in his left shoulder, the deep ache of his gut and head where he’d been punched and kicked over and over.

“Good,” said Naruto, “Your dream sucked.” After speaking, Naruto tried to swallow again. His throat was sore and dry. It made his voice sound even more gravelly than usual.

“You know, it’s funny,” said Takashi, with a single kunai clutched in what remained of his trembling fist. “Now that it’s all over, I can’t really think of anything to do besides kill you.”

Takashi lunged.

His eyes were wide and glassy above grit teeth, and with every step he tripped up over his own feet. For a fraction of a moment, Naruto was looking at the tiger from the forest rather than Takashi.

The kunai in his hand flashed through the air. Takashi was so close, a glint streaking towards his eyes and Naruto threw himself forward, twisting desperately away from Takashi’s attack and towards it all at once, everything in him screaming for this to please, please be over!

The kunai in his hand thunked into the flesh just below Takashi’s heart.

Naruto could feel Takashi’s chest beneath his hand, where his palm was still curled around the kunai. He pulled his fingers away one by one, watching as blood welled up from under them and began to soak Takashi’s black shirt. The stain was barely visible on the cloth, but it shone vivid wet crimson on his hand. It dyed the creases of his skin into sharp relief.

Takashi made an odd, shuddering noise. His kunai fell from limp fingers to land on the floor. The metallic ringing as it settled was deafening, but Naruto could still hear Takashi take in a single, sharp breath.

Naruto stepped back once, twice. He couldn’t look away. Everything had stopped all at once, but at the same time everything was happening all at once. Takashi was looking down at the kunai in his chest. Takashi was raising a trembling hand to the wound. Takashi was stumbling backwards. Takashi’s back hit the wall, and the man slumped down to the floor, leaving a smear of blood like an arrow pointing down to him. Then he just sat there, legs sprawled out in front of him, and by the time he looked up at Naruto, his lips and teeth were red.

“You killed me,” he said. He sounded more surprised than anything else. Naruto had expected hurt, or anger, or disgust or anything else he was used to. Instead, the man he’d killed was looking up at him and he was _surprised_.

“Shut up!” he screamed. Takashi didn’t so much as flinch. Naruto scrambled away, looking around him for some sort of trick, some trap, some sign Takashi was faking or that he’d screwed them over one last time. But there was nothing.

Just Takashi. Just Naruto, staring at the man he killed.

“I have to go home.” His voice was echoing back to him from a million miles away, as if it wasn’t even him speaking, but Naruto knew that those were his thoughts being spoken, his voice. Takashi arched an eyebrow towards his hairline and looked consideringly at Naruto. Then, the expression fell and the man sighed.

“The portal is under the stone slab I dragged in,” he said. Never in all the time Naruto knew him had Takashi ever sounded so empty. The man coughed for a moment, and blood trickled down his chin. Naruto had his fist clenched so hard that his remaining fingernails were piercing his skin. “You’ll arrive just in time for the chunin exams, if I’m calculating right,” Takashi continued. “You might even make it for your match.”

“Huh?” At Naruto’s response, Takashi’s mouth twisted into something that might have been a smile.

“Time flows differently here. Kind of…” There was a quirked, half-smile on Takashi’s face that Naruto knew from when Takashi started teaching him. A weird mix of expectation and pride. Like he knew Naruto knew the answer, and was just waiting for Naruto to find it.

Naruto answered before he even considered if he wanted to. “Perpendicular?”

Takashi smiled. His stupid glassy eyes were watering. “Right,” he said, only to devolve into more coughing. The tears in his eyes escaped down his cheeks.

Naruto couldn’t bear to watch this.

He turned away and walked carefully over to the stone slab. His ankle was throbbing, but the more he walked, the more manageable it became. By the time he got to the altar, he felt pulled-together enough to experimentally kick the stone. The altar didn’t so much as twitch, and Naruto sighed. Of course this couldn’t just be easy.

It took Naruto some shuffling, to find a position that braced his left shoulder and his right arm against the stone while his feet braced against the floor, but he figured it out. Then, he took a deep breath and began to push, bare feet scrabbling against the smooth wood floor. The stone groaned as it begrudgingly began to move, shifting barely the width of Naruto’s pinky by the time Naruto had to pause and breathe.

This was obviously going to take a while.

Naruto had shifted the slab roughly an arm’s length when he finally was able to stop. He was panting, now, and blood kept dripping in his eye but he hadn’t once tried to wipe it away. It didn’t feel important, or real. Now he was done, he raised his hand to wipe it away anyways. Something wet from his hand smeared over his cheekbone. His eye stung like it was full of sand, but he could see now, down to the floor. The entirety of the portal seal, identical to the one he remembered in Takashi’s living room, was uncovered.

The seal was simpler, now, to Naruto. He didn’t understand it totally, or even have the skill to mimic it what with all of the intertwined symbols that he’d never seen before. But he could see the spiral of the base, and the careful intersection of different parts that made up for a greater whole in sum. Like seeing the pattern without knowing the parts or the rules.

After all this time, Naruto was looking at his way home. To Konoha. He’d done it. Konoha was safe and now he could finally go home.

Only the sounds of Naruto’s desperate gasps, and Takashi’s much more rattling gasps, could be heard within the golden chamber.

“Hey,” called Takashi. “You want to know why Uzushio fell?”

Naruto glared across the room. Takashi was slumping further, now. His arms were draped over the floor on either side of him like he didn’t even have the energy to move them.

“Sheesh, aren’t you dead yet?” Naruto grumbled in reply. Takashi ignored him, a creep to his last dying breath apparently.

“It’s because they were kind,” Takashi went on. “They shared their seals with the world, left their borders open, let their people reach out into the world and fall in love and spread the tales of what their little island could accomplish. If they’d been just a little bit more hateful, struck first and struck hard, they’d still be alive. But they were better than that. They reached out. And when they needed help in return, no one reached back.” When Takashi’s head raised in jerks and shakes, Naruto twitched, clenching his fist. But all Takashi did was look at him, with his stupid, confusing tears rolling down his bloody cheeks.

“There have always been Shinobi like you,” Takashi rambled on. “Shinobi who resist hatred, who reach out. You can keep holding out your hand. Grab those around you and never let go. Take on their hurts as your own. But no one is ever going to reach back.” His head fell again. Naruto could feel the tremors rattling through his arm as Takashi’s words became fainter and fainter. “The cycle of hatred will go on,” he whispered. “And it will devour you.”

For a moment, Naruto wondered if Takashi hadn’t stabbed him after all. There was something cold, lodged deep in his chest making it hard to breathe. In his mind’s eye he could see Jiji, talking around Naruto’s questions and never quite meeting his eye. Iruka-sensei glaring, scolding him and shouting at him until, bit by bit, the hatred in his eyes chipped away. Kakashi-sensei, telling him that he was taking Sasuke for training alone.

Sasuke at every age, hovering over him with his fist raised and horror in his dark eyes before lurching away.

The crimson whirlpool stitched onto every flak-vest in Konoha.

Shikamaru, staring up at the clouds, the last of Naruto’s precious people he’d seen before Takashi whisked him away.

The words escaped Naruto before he even knew what they were.

“Yuki did.”

“Eh?” Takashi looked as surprised at Naruto’s answer as Naruto felt, before the truth of his own words sunk into Naruto’s very bones.

“Dumbass,” Naruto growled. Over his stomach, his seal warmed up with the bubbling of anger in his gut. At the small of his back, three tails warmed as well. “You got it backwards. Yuki reached out to me, first. For no other reason than because she was awesome, and kind, and she saw me and saw s-something, something like her.”

Naruto was smiling, now. Yuki had taught him, way back at the beginning, that smiling in battle was essential. Takashi wasn’t smiling. “The fox _died_ thanks to her kindness towards you,” he snarled. Naruto snarled back, baring his fangs.

“Shut up,” he said, furious yet calm, in agony yet happy. “You don’t know anything about it! Because she didn’t just die. She tricked death! She saved everyone from you! She changed the world. And she changed me.” Naruto’s smile grew. Because that was something he could do, now. He could miss his most precious person, and hurt for it, but still keep going. “She’s dead, but her kindness isn’t,” he promised to himself, to the world. “Because I will carry her kindness and make it mine.”

“Hah. Yet you’ve killed me in revenge for your fox, right? Hatred...begets hatred.” Takashi’s voice was slower, now. Interspersed with gasps and little moans. Naruto made himself listen to the dying words of the man he killed. He hated Takashi. But he also felt something like a lack of regret. “What would she think of you?”

Naruto shrugged, staring down at the scars on his left shoulder. “I’ll never know,” he said. “But I am a shinobi, ya’ know. Life, death, whatever, it’s all part of the world changing.” Above Naruto, the golden chakra was continuing to climb upwards, replacing the red and increasing the sunlight shine of the room. The brightness was making his eyes water. In fact, his eyes were watering so much that fresh tears poured down his cheeks.

“I’m a fox,” Naruto rasped. “Change is kind of what we do.” He had to close his eyes against the brightness, now. Something deep in his chest was clenching tight, and Yuki’s laughter was echoing in his ears.

When Naruto looked back to Takashi though his blurry eyes, the shinobi was calmly staring. “I underestimated you,” said Takashi. “You’re more than the person I wanted you to be. More than I probably should’ve challenged.” Takashi laughed joylessly, and his torso slumped to the side. His arm stretched out, fingers trembling as he raised a hand towards Naruto. “I can still take the demon out of you, Naruto. I don’t even have to destroy Konoha to do it. We could release the kyuubi anywhere marked by the summons realm, anywhere in the Elemental Nations. You’d have your chakra back, your shadow clone jutsu. You’d be a normal shinobi. No more hatred from the villagers, no more being alone. Then, this change you believe in... maybe I’d even believe it, too.”

Naruto didn’t even consider it.

“Heh.” Naruto stepped forward as he scoffed, and something knocked against his foot. It was Takashi’s hitai-ate, still pristine on its black cloth. Naruto reached down and picked it up. His eyes were reflected in the metal. His pupils were round, and his irises clear and blue. He looked back to Takashi, whose breaths were coming further and further apart. Then, he raised his arm and pulled the loop of the hitai-ate over his head, until the metal settled over his chest. Takashi’s fist clenched shut, and the man looked at him in wordless, pained confusion.

Naruto pulled the hitai-ate to rest flat against his heart. The confusion on Takashi’s face cleared away.

As Naruto stepped back onto the portal seal, he turned to Takashi one last time and smiled, shaking his head. “Go to Hell,” he growled, pushing his chakra into the clean black lines of his way home.

The last things he saw before the world went white were Takashi’s eyes drifting shut, and his chest collapsing for the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's in the title! You had SO MUCH fair warning!
> 
>  
> 
> As a quick aside, anyone who wants to help me out with how this fic should be tagged, feel free. I'm not great at tagging.


	17. Now

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, Cisai.

“Shikamaru.”

 

“Yeah, Dad?”

 

In the seat next to Shikamaru, his Dad sighed. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow in question, but the gesture went ignored. There was no way his Dad didn’t understand Shikamaru’s intent, he’d copied the gesture from the man himself. So, Shikamaru readied himself for a wait. His Dad would make his thoughts clear no sooner nor later than the man wanted to.

 

Shikamaru couldn’t help but watch curiously when his Dad reached into a pocket of his jounin vest and pulled out a roll of Nara-made velvet bandages. One of Dad’s massive, scarred hands grasped Shikamaru’s forearm and pulled it into his lap, gentle but unyielding. Shikamaru absently leaned forward to make it easier for his Dad to reach.

 

His Dad held Shikamaru’s wrist, palm upward, and used his other hand to begin winding the bandage around the slices in his skin, starting from Shikamaru’s elbow and working down. Shikamaru slumped slightly, but otherwise remained still. He’d used to squirm when Dad had put bandaids on skinned knees and the like, but today it felt too troublesome to avoid something he didn’t even really mind.

 

“I was terrified, when you were born,” said his Dad. It took a moment for the words to register. When they did, Shikamaru sat up and frowned at his Dad’s bowed head.

 

“Huh?” His Dad continued unphased by Shikamaru’s involuntary interruption, apparently absorbed in his meticulous binding of Shikamaru’s wounds.

 

“I held you in my arms and I realized that, should I lose you, the pain would be unbearable. Yet, we are shinobi. One of us has to die before the other, and so pain is inevitable.” Tying off the bandage, his Dad leaned back and opened up a second pocket. He pulled out a new roll and Shikamaru automatically placed his other arm into his Dad’s lap. Otherwise, he remained quiet as the shadows around his Dad grew darker, and Shikamaru found himself biting the inside of his cheek at the unfamiliar tension in his Dad’s shoulders. “Many Shinobi choose not to take that chance,” his Dad quietly continued, “either distancing themselves or ensuring there is no one to distance themselves from.”

 

On a normal day, there would be no reason for his Dad to say these things.

 

“You’re scared how my fight with Naruto will conclude,” said Shikamaru with no small amount of wonder. His Dad’s coughed laugh made Shikamaru startle. His Dad’s firm grip kept his arm in place beneath the untied bandage.

 

“I am scared every single day,” his Dad, usually so sedate, ruefully replied. “However, I also have you in my life, for however long we are both alive. I would change nothing.”

 

“Dad,” said Shikamaru, scowling at the stupid, sad smile on his old man’s face, “this is pointless. I’m not gonna die in this stupid exam.”

 

“I have no assurance of that, Shikamaru. No, listen to me.” At his Dad’s admonishing words, Shikamaru had begun to turn away, preferring the much more interesting events in the stands below. Before he could get far, though, his Dad grasped his face in one big palm and turned Shikamaru’s head so he was forced to meet his Dad’s eyes. The serious expression there was one Shikamaru recognized, but never before known to be pointed at him. “No one here knows Uzumaki’s condition, or what may come of it. There is a lack of information, here, and you’re smart enough to understand how dangerous that makes Uzumaki.”

 

A lack of intelligence was what killed shinobi. Shikamaru knew that. He also knew that, were this any other shinobi than Naruto, they wouldn’t be having this conversation.

 

“Then shouldn’t you be providing me with information on Naruto?” he asked in a low voice. His tone was bordering on demanding, and that was a line he hadn’t toed often with his old man. It was hard to keep his frustration buried, though, when this was the second time in his life he’d had to ask about Naruto and the way people stared at him. His likelihood of an answer was slim and he knew it.

 

Indeed, his Dad simply shrugged and tied off the last bandage. “There’s nothing to know that would change your mind, obviously. You’re so stubborn,” he said, and shook his head with that strange, sad smile. “Just like your Mom.”

 

If anything could derail him, it was that. “I think I’m more like you,” he said, staring incredulously at his Dad. His brains were all from the old man, after all, along with his laziness and his cloud-watching.

 

“Do you?” his Dad asked, smirk growing insultingly wide. “Maybe the man I am now, but I am who I am today because of you and your Mom.” With a world-weary sigh, Dad took Shikamaru’s smaller hand between both of his own and gave it one firm squeeze. Then, he straightened his back, and Shikamaru noticed a hint of pride in his Dad’s face when he smiled at Shikamaru. “I have not let fear drive my choices for a very long time. Not since your Mother nagged me into marrying her.”

 

Whatever weight could be attributed to his Dad’s words evaporated, and Shikamaru groaned. He knew first-hand how his Mom went about getting her way. “Of course she did,” he grumbled.

 

“Mmm,” his Dad hummed neutrally. “I was scared to love someone only to lose them. Your Mom was the only woman stubborn enough to capture me anyways. I’m happier, for the life she’s gifted me.”

 

His Dad had just been talking about fear. About how a shinobi might avoid personal connections if they thought it would just cause them hurt in the long run. Was his Dad really saying he’d been one of those people?

 

While Shikamaru was still reeling from the implications of his Dad’s words, his Dad let go of Shikamaru’s hand. Then he stood up from his seat, groaning deep in his chest all the while and grabbing his own knees. Shikamaru knew his old man could spring into action and gut a dozen men before anyone could blink, but he appreciated the theatrics. He appreciated less how his Dad planted a hand on his head and ruffled the few loose strands that had escaped Shikamaru’s ponytail.

 

“But I don’t need to explain this to you, Shikamaru,” his Dad said, grinning despite what Shikamaru was sure was obvious alarm on his own face. “You’re a capture specialist.”

 

*****

_I’m ready._

 

Above them, the sky was burning blue. There wasn’t so much as a cloud. The heat of it pounded against Naruto’s skin, stung his eyes, but at least helped to obscure the stands around them.

 

He fell into the dust of the arena on one knee, then had to hoist himself back up. A few scabs ripped open in the process. Of all the hurts on his body, his feet felt the least painful, thanks to Kaka-sensei’s weird freakout. Sometime after this fight, Naruto really wanted to go talk to the man. Thanking Kakashi-sensei again seemed like the nice thing to do, along with apologizing for showing up so bloody. Naruto doubted that his injuries and failure in using the techniques Kakashi-sensei had trained him in had endeared him to his sensei. But, Kakashi-sensei had still asked him if he was going to be okay for this last fight, and that was bittersweet. Bittersweet, because it would be hard to explain to Kakashi-sensei what Naruto had meant by ‘ready’.

 

There just weren’t a whole lot of ways for this fight to go. He and Shikamaru were barely ten paces from each other. Being close to Shikamaru was as good as being captured already. Naruto could jump back to gain range as soon as the match started, but even if Shikamaru followed him there was no way such a smart guy would fall for Naruto’s traps. The most Naruto could hope for was to draw out the fight before losing. The idea didn’t hold much appeal.

 

So, the outcome of the match was decided, in Naruto’s opinion, before the proctor even declared the start. Shikamaru was well within range to grab Naruto with his shadow, and Naruto had no intention of moving. The instinct to move was there, out of survival and because he knew Shikamaru had been looking forward to this fight, but in an odd turn of events, he and Shikamaru had swapped places.

 

Shikamaru had a blazing look in his eyes, fists and jaw clenched. Naruto just wanted to take a nap.

 

Proving himself right, Naruto didn’t run when Shikamaru broke their stalemate and made his handsigns, despite the two streaks of shadows darting towards him. The flat, soundless shadows reached his own in a split second, backlit as Naruto was by the dipping sunlight, and Naruto closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see the disappointment on Shikamaru’s face when Naruto failed to give him whatever spar he was looking for.

 

A few seconds passed. He’d imagined Shikamaru’s capture jutsu would at least be noticeable. Maybe it was meant to go undetected until the target tried to escape?

 

Naruto shuffled his feet. He was fairly sure he could still move. To check, he inched one eye open curiously and raised his arm slightly from his side.

 

Nothing stopped him. Nothing was nearby to do so. In a perfect circle around him, never quite touching Naruto’s, Shikamaru’s shadow was laying across the dust like a snake in the sunlight. Their shadows were close to -but never quite- touching.

 

Naruto’s gaze shot to Shikamaru, who was tense at the tail-end of the shadow leading from Naruto’s ring. There was sweat beading at his temple, and his hands were bloodless from holding in position so harshly, but Shikamaru’s expression was soft.

 

“It’s harder to hold it like this, without completing the capture. But it takes less chakra, so,” said Shikamaru, looking as though he’d shrug if he could. “Also, you can move.”

 

“What,” Naruto said, too confused to keep from blurting the first thing to come to mind, “you want me to dance for you or something?”

 

A snort escaped Shikamaru before the Nara could stifle it, and Naruto had to laugh, himself, when Shikamaru’s knee promptly buckled. It took Shikamaru a few moments to regain his footing while trying to keep his suddenly wriggling shadow in place and settle it back into an unmoving circle. Naruto couldn’t help but think that, if laughter was the weakness to Shikamaru’s clan jutsu, then Naruto might just want to spar again. A fight won by telling jokes could be fun.

 

“Troublesome,” Shikamaru sighed, once he had his shadow steady again. A small smile was playing at the corner of his lips, though, so Naruto counted this bout as a win even if he was captured.

 

Being captured like this meant the match was over anyways. So, Naruto could go home and finally sleep.

 

Except, Naruto thought, mood dropping fast, his apartment was trashed and he didn’t have any money. So, going home wasn’t going to be an option for a while. Not that Konoha wasn’t home! But his apartment had at least had a bed.

 

“Where did you just go?”

 

Shikamaru’s thoughtful words snapped Naruto from his darkening thoughts, and he quickly pinned his opponent with an eye-scrunched grin.

 

“Eh? I’m still here, yanno, you’ve got me way too captured to leave,” Naruto replied. But, Shikamaru just slowly shook his head.

 

“No,” he said. “I haven’t caught you. Yet.”

 

“Um,” said Naruto, glancing confused down at the shadow ring cast just inches from his own shadow. “Want me to, like, just touch my shadow to yours or…? Like, would that help? Is this a performance anxiety thing?”

 

“Please don’t.” Mimicking his tone, Shikamaru’s face went flat and resigned. “Ino is never going to let me live that down,” he continued under his breath, as though he didn’t expect Naruto to hear it. Naruto supposed most shinobi wouldn’t have, but foxes had better hearing than most.

 

Yuki’d used to tell him during their training days that she caught him by sound, first. Then smell, then sight, then vibrations. Then, when she’d still found him even after he’d learned to hide all of those, he’d asked her what was left to track him by. Yuki’d just laughed at that, and told him he’d understand when he was a teacher someday.

 

A loud sigh distracted him yet again, but this time, when Naruto checked, Shikamaru’s face was grim.

 

“You’re shaking,” said Shikamaru.

 

He wasn’t wrong. Naruto could feel it, now that he was paying attention. Shivers kept erupting from his chest against his will, catching and jolting him in time with his breathing. They were tiny, though, so Shikamaru had to have been watching pretty closely to have noticed.

 

“Yeah, so?” said Naruto. “Today sucked.”

 

Even as he spoke, Naruto knew he shouldn’t have. His eyes were already burning, and the shudders in his chest were gaining in strength. ‘Today sucked’ was such an understatement it was nearly funny. Time was so strange. It might have been less than a day since Yuki died, or it might have been five months in the future. It felt like no time at all.

 

In the span of a heartbeat, Naruto felt too drained for words. “Whatever,” he sighed. “I forfei- “

 

“No!”

 

Shikamaru’s shout echoed in the ringing silence of the arena. Naruto snapped his jaw shut on instinct. He’d never heard Shikamaru raise his voice before, and it was weird. The shadow around him was also starting to shake in time with Shikamaru, who seemed to have begun trembling from exertion, a strange sight from his laziest classmate.

 

“Why?” asked Naruto. “I don’t get what your deal is! You’ve caught me, yanno? End it!”

 

“No,” Shikamaru replied, voice eerily calm after his earlier exclamation. Naruto’s lungs felt as though they were being compressed.

 

“I don’t get what you want!” Naruto found himself screaming across the battle-worn dust. Shikamaru didn’t so much as blink at him, despite the embarrassingly shrill words. All the confusion, all the pain of the last day felt as if it was being torn out of Naruto by the throat, heating his face and making his eyes burn and his fist clench until his remaining nails drew blood. “I can’t give you a cool fight! I’m tired!” The kunai that had first been buried in Yuki’s chest, then Takashi’s, flashed through his mind. “The promises I’ve made, they mean everything to me, so when you said you wanted to fight me, of course I had to give it my all dattebayo. But, but ‘my all’ isn’t a whole lot, today.”

 

“Troublesome.” Catchphrase or not, Shikamaru’s annoyance ripped through Naruto and left him choking. “Okay. You like promises, so I’ll make one, too,” Shikamaru said, voice unyielding and dark eyes flashing, “I won’t let you be alone anymore.”

 

Naruto’s hand went slack.

 

Warmth was flooding through Naruto. Deep in his chest, something cold and sharp snapped as Shikamaru’s words made everything Naruto had expected to hear melt away. “What?” he gasped, only half hearing himself through the pounding in his ears. He could barely understand what Shikamaru’s words had sparked in him, at first, but as Shikamaru held his gaze Naruto realized what the warmth was.

 

Naruto tried desperately to crush it down, but he was too late. He shook his head frantically. There were so many reasons to ignore Shikamaru’s words. Shikamaru didn’t know about the Kyuubi, and everything about Naruto’s broken chakra was likely to drive off Shikamaru. More importantly, though, Naruto wasn’t strong enough. Yuki had held inside her the power of a force of nature, so far as Naruto was concerned, and even she fell under the weight of Naruto’s incompetence. Not to mention how annoying Naruto knew he managed to be, even when he tried so hard to get people to like him and it never worked and by the time he tried something else it was too late and they hated him. Shikamaru should know already that Naruto was no good to be around, and Shikamaru already had close friends. Naruto believed Shikamaru’s intentions for the moment, but after today? Hope - that Shikamaru truly meant his promise - was a cruelty, in a world where Shikamaru was either going to die or walk away.

 

The pain from Yuki was unbearable as it was. Strength came from protecting your precious people, but that didn’t mean Naruto had to trust those precious people to stay with him.

 

“Eh. You don’t believe me yet, which is fine. I’ll catch you eventually.” Though the words themselves should have been casually confident, in keeping with Shikamaru’s usual cool-dude style, something about the way they were spoken gave Naruto the impression that Shikamaru was more affected than he let on. Like he actually cared whether Naruto believed him. “Naruto,” he continued, “I know you’re too clever to have gone into these fights without some surprises. Honestly, anyone who thinks they’ve seen all you can do is a moron. If you want to push me away, then you’re going to have to hit me with everything you’ve got first. And I’ve been saving my chakra all day to meet you as an equal.” More than the shadows fencing him in, there was a fierce determination in Shikamaru’s eyes, a solidity in his frame as the other boy widened his stance, that caught Naruto’s attention and kept him from looking away. “So, pull that ace out of your sleeve so we can show everyone how two dead-lasts fight.”

 

Shikamaru leaned forward onto his toes, as if he, too, was bound by the need to see what the other would do next. The shadows around them tinted pitch black.

 

Nothing about his situation had changed. There were dark shadows encircling Naruto, and none of his seals could change that. He was still tired, and his chest still ached, and he still expected Shikamaru to turn tail and bolt if Naruto brought out his own tails. But, there was the slightest chance that Shikamaru would hold those long shadows firmly enough for Naruto to do something- something that could maybe, just maybe, bring about the change they both wanted.

 

The outcome of the match was decided, in Naruto’s opinion, before he even realized he’d decided to fight back.

 

Because sometimes, you have to fight a battle you know you can’t win.

 

He closed his eyes and let the seal on his stomach burn.

 

*****

 

Up in the stands, shouts could be heard from every direction.

 

“That idiot!”

 

“Stop the match!”

 

“There’s no way Uzumaki can control it, he can’t be allowed to let it loose!”

 

“Someone get Nara out of there!”

 

“Hatake, you can control it if it gets out, right?”

 

Then, as the tiny, one-armed form down in the arena did not burst into caustic red, the audience slowly went quiet. No hateful killing intent flooded the air like it had over thirteen years ago. Naruto was breathing evenly, eyes closed, almost as if he was meditating.

 

A few stands up from the railing, Asuma-san took a step towards the fight and his own student, cigarette falling from his mouth and panic in the line of his jaw. It took a massive hand on his shoulder to stop him.

 

“Wait,” said Gai. Without Maito’s good cheer in full force, the strength and bodily awareness the man held beneath that atrocious green spandex was much more obvious. All of that tension was aimed down into the arena at Naruto as the stump of the boy’s left arm began throwing green sparks.

 

The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki’s eyes opened, revealing sky blue irises and a foxy grin.

 

Adamantine chains bathed in green flame rolled from Naruto’s left shoulder, swaying and curling like ripples in a stream. No one who had known the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero could mistake them, nor miss the almost imperceptible green sheen laced between them, a film of chakra poised to burn the unwary. Anyone who remembered the siege of Uzushio knew the fate of those who attempted to breach the greatest of her infamous barriers. Glimmering gold in the midday sunlight were true chakra chains, a bloodline technique only classified as such because the amount of non-elemental chakra required would kill a shinobi from any other clan. Hypothetically, anyone could learn to make them. Practically, Naruto was likely the only person alive who could survive bringing life to such a deceptively simple, devastatingly unwavering shield.

 

The silence ringing through the crowd was broken only in small clusters, by Shinobi from Konoha and Suna alike who were old enough to remember the last war.

 

“It’s…not the fox?” came the first startled murmurs, only from a few stupid Konoha-nin. Everyone else had only one word on their lips.

 

“Uzumaki,” they said. Some sounded scared. A few could have passed for relieved. Most simply sounded awed.

 

And, so quiet that no one could hear beyond Gai, who had returned to standing right beside him, Kakashi couldn’t help but speak, too, a mere whisper behind his mask as he looked down on his wayward student with his heart beating in his throat.

 

“Kushina.”

 

*****

 

Naruto pushed and pulled on the burning-angry-red chakra attached to the Kyuubi seal until there was a concentration in his left shoulder, focusing everything within him on the feeling of fox-fire. Fox-fire came naturally to him. So, too, did the last technique Yuki taught him. With a pop of sensation, like releasing a cork from a bottle, Naruto’s chakra flowed from his shoulder in the form of three slim, glowing chains, each twice as long as Naruto was tall.

 

The golden light cast from his chains was illuminating the shadows, and Naruto was mildly surprised to see that, instead of vanishing, the shadows were elongating, spreading millimeter by painstaking millimeter, like ink soaking into cloth. Shikamaru, however, looked ridiculously surprised, a certain hungrily curious glint in his eye and a flare of his nostrils being the only outward signs. They’d be subtle signals on anyone who wasn’t so damn stoic.

 

At the edges of his chains where they tickled the ring around him, green sparks were growing into crackling, growing flames of fox-fire which spread to lick the ground, and Naruto all at once understood Shikamaru’s surprise. It was ominous, watching your own technique mutate and spread when you hadn’t expected it to.

 

The two of them caught each other’s eye. There was a question, hanging in the air between the two of them. A silent ‘are we going to do this?’. The fox-fire, while it never moved past the barrier of Shikamaru’s expanding shadows, gained enough height to flicker around Naruto’s ankles. Naruto really wouldn’t blame Shikamaru for backing down right about now.

 

 Except, the shadows did not fade. Shikamaru stayed, held up the nearly liquid shadows now beginning to spread across his arms and legs, and nodded.

 

Following some unknown instinct from the back of his mind, Naruto began to spin. He settled all his weight up onto the ball of his foot and swung out his right arm, forcing his chains to whip around him in a parody of the strike he’d used to knock Takashi off his feet. Only, this time, he didn’t stop. He wanted Yuki back. He wanted to live in the moment where he’d performed last jutsu she’d ever teach him and she’d been proud. He wanted to spin these chains up around him so no one could ever touch him again.

 

Where chains swept through the air, he imagined nine white tails tipped blood-red slicing through the air on a wave of green flame.

 

Fox-fire quickly obscured all of Naruto’s vision. The more he spun, the more his chains burned, and the flames very gaining a life of their own. Sparks thrown off his shoulder were igniting as soon as they touched the invisible line between Naruto’s light chakra and Shikamaru’s dark. It took the very sky being blotted out for Naruto to dizzily come to a stop.

 

The shadows were pulled tight around his flames on one side. His chains were straining and quivering on the other. Between the two, the shape and pressure of Shikamaru’s capture jutsu seemed to have directed the flames, and along with Naruto’s twirling the effect was a whirlpool of green flame.

 

The taut lines of the chains from his shoulder made it obvious what would happen if he let go carelessly. Fox-fire had burned Takashi. It would burn anyone in this arena who wasn’t Naruto.

 

Unless, apparently, you held the shadows that were doing half the work at keeping the fox-fire directed.

 

The waves of green were parting around a blackened void, lashing out and brightening almost as if in defiance of the encroaching dark. In the center of the dark was Shikamaru. His eyes were squinting against the beating waves of air, and a few flyaways from his ponytail lashed against his face, but he took step after begrudging step towards Naruto. The force of the flames was physically pushing Shikamaru backwards, but the shadows that seemed to drip from the boy’s arms and legs latched onto to the edges of Naruto’s foxfire, pulling him forward. His chest was heaving, his teeth clenched in a grimace, but Shikamaru breached the barrier until he, too was in the eye of the storm.

 

Naruto could have said he didn’t want Shikamaru to make it through, but as soon as he saw Shikamaru he knew it would have been a lie.

 

The air was thick with spinning sparks. The whole world blurred around Naruto in shades of forest green and sunlight casting longer and longer shadows. Shikamaru alone was steady. Chest to chest with Naruto, knees bent and shoulders straining, he was there by Naruto’s side.

 

The wind stripped away the moisture from the corners of Naruto’s eyes before it could truly gather.

 

Shikamaru raised his left hand, painstakingly slow for all the shadows dripping off his skin and bubbling against the sparks in the air. His hand came to rest on Naruto’s intact shoulder.

 

“They’re beautiful,” Shikamaru shouted. Naruto could only barely hear him over the rush of the fire around them. His chains were beginning to strain, and the howling seemed to increase for every link longer they were forced to grow to contain the whirlpool around them.

 

“They’re from my mom,” Naruto whispered. There was no way Shikamaru could hear him, but when Naruto spoke the other watched his mouth thoughtfully, then melted into a tremulous smile that told Naruto better than anything else that Shikamaru was a proficient lip reader.

 

The sparks were rising faster, now, and Naruto could feel the ground cracking beneath his heels from the weight of his chains on his shoulder. The fox-fire was spinning away from him, but he didn’t want to look away from Shikamaru and the calm radiating from him, cut off here from the rest of the world. From the strain in his scars, though, they had seconds at most before letting go was inevitable.

 

Shikamaru seemed to understand this. With a rueful grin, Shikamaru’s hand slid down Naruto’s arm, lingering over old cuts and bruises with a tender regard that left Naruto perplexingly soothed. When Shikamaru’s hand met his own, he pressed his palm to Naruto’s, and from there their fingers naturally intertwined. Something cool and silky, like the sand of Uzushio hours after sunset, sifted through the gaps between their hands and Naruto was flustered by the realization that he was feeling Shikamaru’s shadow.

 

“Together,” said Shikamaru, still projecting to be heard over the air bending around them. His hand squeezed Naruto’s tight.

 

This, Naruto thought, was what it felt like to be trusted.

 

Yuki had taught him what it meant to be trusted. It was the most natural thing in the world to trust Shikamaru in return.

 

Naruto braced his feet against the cracked and scorched earth. As gently as he could, he tightened his grasp on Shikamaru’s hand and, against the pull of the fox-fire jolting against his chains, against Shikamaru’s shadows curling and directing the fire, he began to push their arms upward. Using only one arm for every task had strengthened it in a way nothing else could, and although every force in the world seemed to be yanking his and Shikamaru’s hands downward, Naruto kept them moving inextricably towards the sky.

 

The more height they gained, inch by inch, the more the effort showed on Shikamaru’s face. He was panting, now, leaning more weight on their clasped hands. His shadows were yielding to him still, though, curling and darkening against Naruto’s fox-fire, and as Shikamaru’s hand moved, so too did the flames begin to rise. A column was growing around them, and the light bound up inside was intensifying in leaps and bounds, condensing into a flare that, instinctually, Naruto trusted Shikamaru would ensure went only upwards. No harm would come to the audience in the stands.

 

Naruto had to rise up onto his toes to make that final inch. Shikamaru’s arm, and his shadows along with it, and Naruto’s fox-fire along with those shadows, were all stretched as high as they would go.

 

His chains retracted back into his shoulder.

 

For the amount of noise the fox-fire whirlpool canon had made before being fired, Naruto had expected the release to be cacophonous. In truth, it was quiet. Perfectly silent, even. Naruto would have liked to see what was happening, but he was too busy being crushed into the arena ground. He was flat on his back, eyes shut tight yet unable to completely block the green-white-gold flash slowly fading away.

 

By the time Naruto felt safe opening his eyes, he noticed something warm and with a slight give was underneath his left side. There was fabric rubbing against his leg, which shouldn’t be the case given his shorts. Naruto blinked rapidly and shuffled in his prone position to look to whatever was to his left for some answers.

 

The tip of his nose met Shikamaru’s cheek.

 

With an audible squeak he would really like to forget, Naruto jerked his head back. He expected a scathing remark or sigh of annoyance from Shikamaru for laying on him, but it never came. Shikamaru was staring up into the sky as if he was cloud-watching. Naruto peeked his eyes upwards reflexively.

 

High above Konoha, in the comparatively dim sky, curtains of rippling fox-fire were swaying through the burning blue. Just like the rings Naruto could half-remember from that first frantic flight he’d had with Yuki on their way from the Kyuubi-tree, half-remembered because he’d been bleeding from his new stump.

 

Naruto wondered if he’d be able to fly like Yuki someday.

 

“An aurora,” came the strangled whisper from Shikamaru. “We made a fucking aurora.”

 

“Is that what it’s called?” Naruto blurted.

 

The arm beneath his shoulders and the torso and leg pressed against his own began to shake. There was a choking noise rattling from Shikamaru. Naruto tore his eyes from the aurora and stared worriedly at Shikamaru from inches away, who oddly enough didn’t look hurt but was actually _smiling_ -

 

Shikamaru burst into howling, whole-body laughter.

 

There were tiny tears gathering at the edges of his dark, sharp eyes, and his lips were stretched around a toothy grin. His face was pale as ever, but the tips of his ears were crimson. Naruto didn’t dare hope he was so lucky, he knew fully well that his entire face – whiskers and all – was bright red. Eventually, Shikamaru trailed off into rough chuckles and finally twisted his head to look at Naruto. When he did, the last of Shikamaru’s laughter caught in his chest, and he twitched a little where Naruto could feel pressed to his own bruised ribs.

 

But, although it was more sedate, Shikamaru was still smiling when he gathered words together. “Your smile…” he said, “it’s finally real.”

 

Naruto hadn’t even realized he was smiling.

 

“Yeah,” Naruto answered the unasked question. Come what may, Naruto had made his choice about Shikamaru’s weird promise without even noticing. “You win.”

 

“Hah,” Shikamaru breathed, turning back to the sky. “I’m glad.”

 

“The match goes to Shikamaru Nara!”

 

The world burst back into existence from every side as the stands erupted with sound. Naruto found himself cringing from the noise, which given he and Shikamaru’s position meant his head ended up tucked awkwardly against the other’s shoulder. The cheers and cries from the audience, as well as Naruto’s flinch, seemed to rouse Shikamaru into finally moving as well. Thankfully, he was more productive. Shikamaru sat up and pushed Naruto upright with him, using an arm at his back that he quickly tucked around Naruto’s waist. By the time they were standing, Shikamaru had managed to take most of Naruto’s weight.

 

“Quick,” Shikamaru hissed, “let’s get out of here!” The two of them began to stumble towards the exit. With the conclusion of the match, the ground-level door had opened, so they wouldn’t have to climb up into the stands and leave with the rest of the crowd. Every step made Naruto’s scars rub against Shikamaru’s rough mesh shirt. The skin where his left arm had been was numb at best, so there wasn’t much discomfort from it. If anything, the solid press of Shikamaru’s arm around his waist and the slightly higher shoulder against his own made an anxious sort of vulnerable-stress Naruto hadn’t even noticed start to fade.

 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Naruto belatedly asked. Shikamaru was limping forwards with Naruto at an impressive speed. Already they were almost to the exit tunnel. The sun had dipped enough in the sky to shine through the now-open doorway, and the glow was thick enough compared to the dull tan of the arena walls to keep Naruto from seeing through to their goal, whatever it may be.

 

Shikamaru appeared to be frowning slightly at Naruto, before he smiled with an eyebrow raised in confusion. “Nothing really,” he replied, “don’t worry so much. Dealing with congratulations and an award or something just seems like a drag.”

 

The response was so typical from Shikamaru that Naruto broke into startled, wheezy laughter right as they entered the tunnel. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected from Shikamaru, but he supposed if the guy wanted to skip his own party, Naruto wasn’t gonna fight him on it. He’d already lost one fight to him today, and besides, he wasn’t sure how far he’d get without Shikamaru keeping him upright.

 

“Yeah, let’s sneak out! Or else you might end up snoring while Jiji is talking.”

 

“Ah, I do need a nap,” moaned Shikamaru. He was smirking, though, so Naruto thought his teasing was probably well-received. As they exited the tunnel, and their eyes adjusted to the empty Konoha street, Shikamaru’s expression brightened. They both stopped right there while Shikamaru, and so Naruto, looked up into the sky.

 

“Hey,” Shikamaru said, “after this, wanna go cloud-watching?”

 

Indeed, a few fluffy white clouds had drifted into view since the start of their match. Naruto shrugged as much as he could in his position draped over Shikamaru. “I haven’t got anywhere better to be, I guess,” he said. “I’m too broke for ramen.”

 

“Eh, I’ll treat you. You look,” Shikamaru eyed him up and down, and the hand on his waist flattened over his ribs, “…hungry.”

 

Naruto was hungry. He hadn’t had ramen in six months. With everything that’d happened, he hadn’t even had time to think about just how much he’d really missed Konoha, but now he was back and he could go get ramen. He’d made it home. Despite everything, he’d made it back, and now he could eat ramen again instead of being hungry and thirsty and tired and scared and alone-

 

Naruto burst into tears.

 

“Shit,” came the voice of Shikamaru from the brownish blur to his left. “Shit, okay, hurry up, they won’t promote us if they see us cry.”

 

“Why would you cry?” Naruto asked, though his voice sounded like he was gargling rocks.

 

“I don’t want to! I’ve always cried when my friends cry, I don’t even have to be sad!” A heavy sigh from Shikamaru made his whole chest rise and fall, and Naruto could feel the warm pressure against his own chest where they were pressed together. It made the stuttering heaves of his own lungs slow down a little, though his tears kept coming hot and heavy. “It’s such a drag.”

 

Naruto snorted. A bit of snot almost came out, but he sniffed hard. “Sheesh, Shikamaru,” he said, wobbly but gaining in levity from Shikamaru’s comical griping. “Just for that, I oughtta come to you every time I cry!”

 

By blinking away the last of the water from his eyes, Naruto managed to bring Shikamaru back into focus just in time to see every trace of dismay vanish from his friend’s face, replaced by smug satisfaction. “Deal,” said Shikamaru with a smirk. “I’ll hold you to that.”

 

“Eh!?” Under his breath, Naruto could’ve sworn he heard Shikamaru mutter something that sounded like ‘capture complete’. “What the hell?! Why me!?”

 

“Why you?” The arm around Naruto’s waist tightened. Shikamaru seemed contemplative for a moment, looking up to the sky with pursed lips. It took him no time at all, though, to look back down at Naruto and smirk. “I want to see what you’ll do next.”

 

 


End file.
